U.S. Naval High Frequency Direction Finding Sites during World War I and World War II.
Part 1 
Updated: 01 Jun 08
========================================================================================
Station							Opened     Closed/Disestablished
========================================================================================
Adelaide River, Northern Territory, Australia

Adelaide River is a township lying 116 kilometers south of Darwin, on the main north-
south road from the capital to the railhead at Alice Springs. The town of Adelaide 
River is located where the Stuart Highway crosses the Adelaide River in the Northern 
Territory of Australia. At the 2001 census, Adelaide River had a population of 229. 

During World War II, Adelaide River was the headquarters of a large base near the 
town, where there were up to 30,000 Australian and U.S. soldiers based.

There is a war cemetery near the town, which was created especially for the burial 
of servicemen who died in this part of Australia. Many of those who died during the 
Japanese bombing of Darwin in WWII are buried here.

The Adelaide River War Cemetery houses the Northern Territory Memorial, which 
commemorates members of the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Air Force, the 
Australian Merchant Navy and the Services Reconnaissance Department, who lost their 
lives in operations in the Timor and Northern Australian regions, and in waters 
adjacent to Australia, and who have no known grave.

Naval Supplementary Radio Station (DF RI) 		25 Mar 1943 	21 Sep 1945
   Adelaide River, Australia
===================================================================================
Alpena, Lower Peninsula, Michigan

The city of Alpena is on the shore of Lake Huron's Thunder Bay, with Alpena Township 
surrounding it on land. It is the county seat of Alpena County. As of the 2000 census, 
the city population was 11,304. The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is located 
offshore near the city. Incorporated in 1871, the City of Alpena overlooks Lake Huron's 
picturesque Thunder Bay. The wood, cement, and heavy machinery industries of Alpena 
stemmed from a long industrial heritage, that started with logging of the 1800s. 

Despite its small population, it is by far the largest city in sparsely populated 
Northeast Michigan's lower peninsula, serving as its commercial and cultural hub. It 
is considered to be one of the two anchor cities of Northern Michigan, along with 
Traverse City. The Alpena Regional Medical Center is a federally designated rural 
regional medical referral center, and is the largest employer in the city.

The region, known as the Sunrise Side, from its location on the east shoreline of 
Michigan, was first a site of commercial fishing activity and is still home to 
extensive commercial fishing activities. Later the region, like much of Michigan, 
was shaped by the logging era of the 1800s. Today, Alpena is known for its limestone 
quarry, one of the largest in the world, owned and operated by the Lafarge 
corporation and is a major cement manufacturer and exporter. Alpena is also the 
world headquarters of Besser Company, a manufacturer of concrete block machines. 
Tourism (fishing, hunting, camping and a variety of water sports) is also important 
to Alpena's economy. 

Ottawa and Ojibway Native Americans inhabited the northeast lower peninsula of 
Michigan during the Woodland and historic cultural stages. Ojibway villages in the 
Thunder Bay region during the 1800s, included Mujekewis, Shoshekonawbegoking, and 
Sagonakato on the north shore of the Bay, and Shingabawassin on the south shore.

Native Americans became an integral part of the regional economy in northern Michigan 
during the late 1800s. They worked at mining and lumber camps, on survey crews, as 
stevedores on vessels plying the Great Lakes, and as mail carriers. Fishing remained 
an important occupation, and some hunting and trapping also continued in this region. 
Other Native Americans produced traditional craft items for sale, or found seasonal 
and factory work in Michigan cities and towns.

The Thunder Bay region was purchased from Native Americans by the federal government 
in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw. Although some land was used as a reservation area, 
European settlement soon pushed Native American villages inland to Mikado and Hubbard 
Lake. By the 1850s, the Alpena area became a center for fur trading, fishing, and 
lumbering. Most of the early settlers in the Alpena area were from New York and New 
England, but the lumber camps later attracted Swedes, Norwegians, and French-Canadians 
to the area.

The Europeans who first entered the Great Lakes region quickly found their own small 
craft to be unwieldy in the new environment. As a consequence, they soon adapted the 
technology of Native Americans to their own needs. European explorers, missionaries, 
soldiers, settlers, and traders all traveled in their own versions of Native American 
canoes.

The town at the head of Thunder Bay that would eventually become known as Alpena 
was first laid out in 1840, and named "Animickee," Chippewa for "Thunder" in honor 
of the Chippewa Chief with whom Henry R. Schoolcraft signed the 1826 treaty through 
which the government obtained the land and its forest and mineral bounty.

Alpena County was founded originally in 1840 as Anomickee County. In 1843, the name 
was changed to Alpena, a pseudo-Native American word meaning something like "a good 
partridge country." This was part of a much larger effort to rename a great many of 
the Michigan counties at the time. Alpena County was officially organized in 1857.

As Lumbermen began expanding their vision to Lake Huron's northwestern shores, an 
increasing number of lumber hookers began seeking the entrance to the Thunder Bay 
River, and the seemingly limitless forests that spread across the hills surrounding 
the bay. By the close of the 1850's, the cry of lumbering interests rose to push 
for improvements at the growing settlement, and in late 1857 a group of influential 
lumber barons signed a petition requesting that the Federal Government appropriate 
funds for the construction of a pier and lighthouse at the river mouth.

The Lighthouse Board dispatched a survey crew to the area in 1866 to identify the 
most appropriate location for the construction of a new Light to guide vessels into 
the river. Selecting Trowbridge Point, 1 1/4 miles to the northeast of the river, 
as the best location, the Board requested an appropriation of $10,000 for the 
construction of the new Light. Congress followed the Lighthouse Board's recommendation 
and appropriated $10,000 for the construction of the lighthouse on Trowbridge Point 
on March 2, 1867.

the Lighthouse Board changed its recommended location for the Light in its 1867 annual 
report, stating that "subsequent examination has shown that the proper site is at or 
near the mouth of the river, into which vessels and steamers now regularly pass to the 
town of Alpena. This town, which is said to contain two thousand inhabitants, and is 
rapidly increasing in size, is situated at the mouth of the river". Congress approved 
the site change on July 20, 1868, and a private contractor began working on the piers 
at the mouth of the harbor.

With construction of the piers drawing close to completion in 1877, plans were drawn
up for a permanent beacon on a timber crib, to be constructed on the north pier. The 
plan called for a brown painted, timber-framed pyramid structure, the upper two-thirds 
of which were enclosed to create a watch room and a service room below. Above the watch 
room, a square gallery with iron railing was constructed, on which a prefabricated 
decagonal cast iron lantern, with sixth order Fresnel lens, was centered. The new light 
was visible for a distance of 10 miles out in the bay. Construction was completed 
in July, 1877. The Alpena Breakwater Light, on Lake Huron, at the entrance to Thunder 
Bay River was first lit on the evening of August 18, 1877. That same summer, a site for 
a permanent dwelling for the Keeper was selected close to the pier, with the structure 
completed that fall.

On July 12 1888, a fire started in one of the sawmills along the river. Fueled by high 
winds and the huge stacks of lumber along the river bank. The fire destroyed over two 
hundred homes as it swept across the town. The fire traveled along the wooden pier 
and completely destroyed the woodwork of the both the crib and lighthouse, along with 
everything contained within, including the Sixth Order lens and lamp. The keeper and 
his wife fought all night and saved the dwelling.

As a result of the tight fiscal constraints, materials were not readily available for 
the station's reconstruction. The lantern was removed from the abandoned North Point 
Light in Milwaukee. Shipped to the Detroit depot, it was completely refurbished. A 
fourth order Fresnel lens that had been ordered for the planned lighthouse at Two 
Harbors was taken out of storage for temporary use at Alpena. The lantern, lens, 
construction materials and a work crew were loaded on the lighthouse tender Amaranth 
and delivered to Alpena, where construction began immediately. The new light was first
exhibited on the night of October 1, 1888, and the work crew finished construction 
and departed for the Detroit depot on October 6, 1888.

In 1914, the old wooden beacon had deteriorated beyond repair, and the decision was 
made to replace the decrepit structure. The design selected was somewhat similar to 
that which had been used on the Breakwater at Marquette. Erected atop a new concrete 
pier, the structure consisted of a four-legged pyramid skeleton tower, surmounted by 
a circular watch room. An octagonal lantern erected atop this watch room was encircled 
by an iron gallery with a tubular safety railing. A temporary lens lantern was 
suspended on the old beacon while the Fourth Order lens and automated fog bell 
apparatus were carefully disassembled and moved to the new structure, where the lens 
was installed in the lantern. With reliable electricity available in the city, a 
power cable was run to the new light, and hooked up to a 320 candlepower incandescent 
bulb within the lens. After receiving a coat of black paint, the structure was complete, 
and the new Light was exhibited for the first time on the evening of June 26, 1914.

In order to increase its usefulness as a day mark, the structure was painted red in 
the 1950's. With the launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, locals noted the similarity 
of their beloved light station to the Soviet satellite, and the structure came to be 
widely known by the nickname Sputnik. Alpena Breakwater Light was automated in 1974, 
is currently operational and is now surrounded by the Alpena Municipal Marina.

Six lighthouses are located within or near the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. 
Of these six, all but the Old Presque Isle Light continue to serve as navigational 
aids to commercial and recreational vessels passing through the region. They include
the Old Presque Isle Lighthouse, the New Presque Isle Lighthouse, the Middle Island 
Lighthouse, the Thunder Bay Island Lighthouse, the Alpena Thunder Bay River Lighthouse
(Alpena Breakwater Light) and the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse. 

Traditional ways of life and the activities of the inland shore fishery have been 
altered by modern culture, development, and technology. Nonetheless, Ottawa and 
Ojibway treaty rights to fish for subsistence and commercial purposes on the Great 
Lakes were reaffirmed by Federal Court decisions in 1979 and 1981. Much of 
northwestern Lake Huron was declared a tribal fishing area based on Federal Court 
interpretation of the 1836 Treaty at Washington.

Navy Direction Finding Station, Alpena, MI
   at U.S. Naval Radio Station,  Alpena, MI
===================================================================================
Amchitka Island, Alaska

Amchitka is a volcanic, tectonically unstable island in the Rat Islands group of the 
Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is about 68 kilometers long, and varies 
from 3 to 6 km in width. It is bounded by the Bering Sea to the north and east, and 
the Pacific Ocean to the south and west. Amchitka has a maritime climate, often foggy 
and windswept, with many storms, with overcast skies and cloud cover 98 percent of the 
time.

The island was populated for more than 2,500 years by the Aleut people, but has had 
no permanent population since 1832. It was included in the Alaska Purchase of 1867, 
and has since been part of the United States. During World War II, it was used as 
an airfield by U.S. forces in the Battle of the Aleutian Islands.

In June 1942, the Japanese occupied some of the western Aleutian islands, and hoped 
to occupy Amchitka. Eager to remove the Japanese, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff 
agreed to move quickly to regain the territory. American planners decided to build a 
series of airfields to the west of Umnak, from which bombers could attack the invading 
forces. The U.S. Army established bases at Adak and 13 other locations. At the War 
Department's suggestion, an initial reconnaissance of Amchitka was carried out in 
September 1942, which found that it would be difficult to build an airstrip on the 
island. Nevertheless, planners decided on December 13, 1942, that the airfield "had 
to be built" to prevent the Japanese from doing the same. A further reconnaissance 
mission visited Amchitka on December 17=19, 1942, and reported that a fighter strip 
could be built in two to three weeks, and a main airfield in three to four months.

American forces made an unopposed landing on Amchitka on January 11, 1943. Despite 
facing difficult weather conditions and bombing from the Japanese, the airfield was 
usable by February 16, 1943. On February 24, 1943, U.S. Naval Air Facility, Amchitka 
was established. The military eventually built numerous buildings, roads, and a total 
of three airstrips on Amchitka Island, some of which would later be renovated and 
used by the Atomic Energy Commission. At its peak, the occupancy of Amchitka Island 
reached 15,000 troops.

The Aleutian Islands campaign was successfully completed on August 24, 1943. In August,
1943, a U.S. Navy strategic High Frequency Direction Finding (NFDF) and intercept 
station was established on Amchitka Island, which remained until February, 1945. The 
U.S. Army abandoned the site in August, 1950. The site later hosted a U.S. Air Force 
weather station in the early 1950s, through 1954; a White Alice telecommunication 
system from 1959 to 1961; and a temporary communications relay station in the 1960s 
and 1970s.

The Department of Defense and The Atomic Energy Commission occupied Amchitka from 
1964 to 1966. Project Long Shot, a nuclear device, was detonated on October 29, 1965, 
and the yield was 80 kilotons. The purpose of the detonation was to determine the 
behavior and characteristics of seismic signals generated by nuclear detonations. 
It was the first underground test in a remote area, and the first test managed by 
the DoD.

The Department of Energy (DoE) withdrew from the island in 1973, though scientists 
continued to visit the island for monitoring purposes. In 2001, the DoE returned 
to the site to remove environmental contamination. 

Naval Supplementary Radio Station Amchitka Island, AK	   Aug 1943	   Feb 1945
===================================================================================
Antigua, British West Indies
Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda, Leeward Islands, Lesser Antilles, West Indies

Antigua is an island in the West Indies, Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, 
the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. It is also known as Wadadli, 
which means approximately "our own". The island is roughly 54 miles in circumference, 
with an area of 108 square miles, and had an estimated population of about 69,000 
as of July 2006. It is the largest of the Leeward Islands, and the most developed 
and prosperous, due to its upscale tourism industry, offshore banking, internet 
gambling services and education services, including two medical schools.

Over 31,000 people live in the capital of St. John's. The capital is situated in 
the northwest, near VC Bird International Airport, and has a deep harbour which 
is able to accommodate large cruise ships. Other leading population settlements 
are All Saints (3,412) and Liberta (2,239), according to the 2001 Census. English 
Harbour on the southeastern coast is famed as a "hurricane hole" (protected shelter 
during violent storms) and is the site of a restored British colonial Naval Station. 
The latter is called "Nelson's Dockyard". Nelson was at the time a Captain and in 
correspondence made it clear he would prefer not to be there, but rather facing 
the French. Today, English Harbour and the neighbouring village of Falmouth are 
an internationally famous yachting and sailing destination and provisioning center. 
At the end of April and the beginning of May, Antigua Sailing Week, an annual world 
class regatta, started in 1967, brings many sailing vessels and sailors to the island.

As one of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, Antigua is considered by many 
to have the best climate in the Caribbean. This island, discovered by Columbus in 
1493, is comprised of large peaks, rolling hills, and fine sandy beaches accentuated
by rough rocky coasts. 

During the Second World War, a U.S. Naval Auxiliary Air Facility was established at 
Antigua, in the British West Indies on February 1, 1942. In February, 1943, a U.S.
Naval Supplementary Radio Station, with a strategic High Frequency Direction Finding 
(NFDF) mission, was established on Antigua. The HFDF Station closed in December, 1944.

Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Antigua, a U.S. Integrated Undersea Surveillance System 
(IUSS), Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) station was commissioned on Antigyua on 
August 9, 1956. After operating for more than twenty seven years, NAVFAC Antigua was 
decommissioned February 4, 1984.

Antigua is a recognized center for on-line gambling companies. Antigua was one of the 
first nations to legalize, license and regulate on-line gaming. Some countries, most 
notably the United States, argue that because the gaming transaction is initiated in 
their jurisdictions, that the act of on-line wagering is illegal. This argument has 
been repudiated by the World Trade Organization. However in 2006. the U.S. Congress 
voted to approve the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act which criminalizes the 
operations of offshore gaming operators, which take wagers from American-based gamblers.

Naval Supplementary Radio Station (DF) Antigua		   Feb 1943 	   Dec 1944 
===================================================================================
Arlington, Virginia

Arlington County is an urban county of about 203,000 residents in northern Virginia, 
directly across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. Technically, it is inaccurate 
to refer to Arlington as a city. All cities within the state of Virginia are 
independent of counties, though towns may be incorporated within counties. However, 
Arlington has no existing incorporated towns, because Virginia law prevents the 
creation of any new municipality within a county that has a population density 
greater than 1,000 persons per square mile. 

Arlington is considered a central city of Washington, DC, along with neighboring 
Alexandria. At a land area of 26 square miles, it is geographically the smallest self 
governing county in the United States. Arlington is the location of Arlington 
National Cemetery, the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and the Pentagon.

There are numerous unincorporated neighborhoods within Arlington County that are 
commonly referred to by name in the media and local population, as if they were 
distinct towns. The county characterizes these neighborhoods as "urban villages". 
They are usually centers with commercial activity, particularly those located at 
Metrorail stations, shopping malls, office building complexes and other major 
transportation corridors. These include: Ballston, Clarendon, Courthouse, Crystal 
City, Lyon Village, Palisades, Pentagon City, Rosslyn, Shirlington, Virginia Square, 
Westover and Williamsburg Circle. These neighborhoods are not shown on maps.

Once part of Fairfax County in the Virginia Colony, the area that contains Arlington 
County was ceded to the new U.S. government by the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1791, 
the U.S. Congress formally established the limits of the federal territory that would 
be the nation's capital as a square of 10 miles on a side, the maximum area permitted 
by the U.S. Constitution. However, the legislation that established these limits 
contained a clause that prohibited the federal government from locating any offices 
within the portion of the territory that Virginia had ceded.

When Congress moved to the new District of Columbia in 1801, it enacted legislation 
that divided the District into two counties: (1) the county of Washington, which lay 
on the east side of the Potomac River, and (2) the county of Alexandria, which lay 
on the west side of the River. Alexandria County contained the present area of 
Arlington County, then mostly rural, and the settled town of Alexandria (now "Old 
Town" Alexandria), a port located on the Potomac River in the southeastern part of 
the area of the present City of Alexandria.

The town of Alexandria had been a port and market for the slave trade. With growing 
talk of abolishing slavery in the nation's capital, some Alexandrians feared the 
local economy would suffer if the federal government took this step. At the same 
time, there arose in Virginia an active abolitionist movement that created a division 
on the question of slavery in Virginia's General Assembly. Subsequently, during the 
Civil War, Virginia's division on the slavery issue led to the formation of the 
state of West Virginia by the most anti-slavery counties. Pro-slavery Virginians 
recognized that Alexandria County could provide two new representatives who favored 
slavery in the General Assembly, if the County returned the Commonwealth. As a result, 
a movement grew to separate Alexandria County from the District of Columbia. After 
a referendum, the county's residents petitioned the U.S. Congress and the Virginia 
legislature to permit the county to return to Virginia. The area was retroceded 
to Virginia in a July 9, 1846, act of Congress, that took effect in 1847. 

In 1852, the independent City of Alexandria was incorporated from a portion of 
Alexandria County. This led to occasional confusion, as the adjacent county and 
municipal entities continued to share the name of "Alexandria". Alexandria County 
renamed itself in 1920, as Arlington County. The new name was borrowed from Arlington 
National Cemetery.

Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is an American military cemetery established during 
the American Civil War on the grounds of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's home, 
Arlington House (also known as the Custis-Lee Mansion). It is located directly 
across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, north of the Pentagon. With nearly 
300,000 people buried there, Arlington National Cemetery is the second largest 
national cemetery in the U.S. Veterans from all the nation's wars are buried in 
the cemetery, from the American Revolution through the military actions in 
Afghanistan and Iraq. Pre-Civil War dead were re-interred after 1900.

For 30 years, Arlington House was home to Robert E. Lee and his family. The U.S. 
Government confiscated Arlington House and 200 acres of ground from the wife of 
General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. The government designate the grounds 
as a military cemetery on June 15, 1864, In 1882, after many years in the lower 
courts, the matter of the ownership of Arlington National Cemetery was brought 
before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court ruled that the property rightfully 
belonged to the Lee family. The U.S. Congress appropriated the sum of $150,000 
for the purchase of the property from the Lee family.

Town of Potomac
The Town of Potomac was formerly located in Arlington County adjacent to the 
massive Potomac Yard of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. A 
planned community, its proximity to Washington DC, made it a popular place for 
employees of the U.S. government to live. Potomac was developed in the late 
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The town was annexed by the independent 
city of Alexandria in 1930. Today, in Alexandria, the Town of Potomac Historic 
District designates this historic portion of the city, and includes 1,840 acres 
and 690 buildings. The Town of Potomac was added to the National Register of 
Historic Places in 1992.

The Pentagon
The Pentagon in Arlington, is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense. 
It was dedicated on January 15, 1943, and it is the world's largest office 
building. Although it is located in Arlington, the U.S. Postal Service requires 
that "Washington, DC" be used as the place name in mail addressed to the ZIP 
codes assigned to The Pentagon. The building is pentagon shaped and houses about 
23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support 
personnel. It has five floors and each floor has five ring corridors. 

Built during the early years of World War II, it is still thought of as one of 
the most efficient office buildings in the world. It has 17.5 miles of corridors, 
yet it takes only seven minutes or so to walk between any two points in the 
building. It was built from 680,000 tons of sand and gravel dredged from the 
nearby Potomac River, that were processed into 435,000 cubic yards of concrete 
and molded into the pentagon shape. Very little steel was used in its design 
due to the needs of the war effort. The open air central plaza in the center of
the Pentagon, is the world's largest "no-salute, no-cover" area, where U.S. 
servicemembers need not wear hats, nor salute. The snack bar in the center is 
informally known as the Ground Zero Cafe, a nickname originating during the Cold 
War when the Pentagon was targeted by Soviet nuclear missiles. 

Arlington Hall Station
Arlington Hall (also called Arlington Hall Station) was the headquarters of the 
U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) cryptography effort during World 
War II. Its site presently houses the George P. Schultz National Foreign Affairs 
Training Center. The site is located on Arlington Boulevard between S. Glebe 
Road (Virginia Route 120) and S. George Mason Drive in Arlington, Virginia.

Arlington Hall began its existence during the 1920s as a private girls school, 
which by 1941, resided on a 100 acre campus, and had acquired the name of 
Arlington Hall Junior College for Women. On June 10, 1942, the U.S. Army took 
possession of the facility under the War Powers Act, for use by its Signals 
Intelligence Service.

During World War II, Arlington Hall was in many respects similar to Bletchley 
Park in England, though military, and only one of two primarily cryptographic 
operations in Washington. The other was the Naval Communications Annex, also 
housed in a commandeered private girls' school, the predecessor of the Naval 
Security Station, and the home of the Naval Security Group Command headquarters. 
Arlington Hall concentrated its efforts on the Japanese systems, while Bletchley 
Park concentrated on European combatants.

Arlington Hall became one of the organizations and facilities of the National 
Security Agency, after this agency was created in 1952. From 1945 to 1977, 
Arlington Hall served as the headquarters for the U.S. Army Security Agency. 
When the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) was organized at 
Arlington Hall on January 1, 1977, INSCOM absorbed the functions of the Army 
Security Agency into its own operations. INSCOM remained at Arlington Hall until 
the summer of 1989, when INSCOM relocated to Fort Belvoir. During the early 
1980s, Arlington Hall served as a facility of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

In 1989, the Department of Defense transferred the eastern portion of Arlington 
Hall to the Department of State. In October 1993, this portion of the site became 
the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, when the Foreign Service Institute 
(FSI) moved there. The National Foreign Affairs Training Center was renamed as 
the George P. Schultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in a ceremony 
held on May 29, 2002.

The National Park Service listed Arlington Hall on the National Register of 
Historic Places in 1988. The historic main building of the former girls school 
now serves as an administration building for the George P. Schultz Foreign Affairs 
Training Center. The western portion of Arlington Hall presently houses the U.S. 
National Guard Readiness Center.

Fort Myer 
Fort Myer is a U.S. Army post adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington 
County, across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. It is a small post by U.S. 
Army standards, and has no ranges or field training areas. Most of its private 
quarters are occupied by flag rank officers, among whom include many prominent 
generals assigned to the Department of Defense at the Pentagon. 

Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Fort Myer was originally 
established as Fort Whipple during the American Civil War, in 1863. It was enlarged 
and became a permanent post in 1872. In 1881, it was renamed for Brigadier General 
Albert J. Myer, who established the Signal School of Instruction for Army and Navy 
Officers there in 1869. Fort Myer was the location of several exhibition flights 
by Orville Wright in 1908 and 1909. 

Many of the present structures were built after 1895. Since 1908 the post has 
become the quarters of the Army Chief of Staff. The post became a Regular Army 
mobilization center during the two world wars. There are no remains of the original 
Civil War works. 

Naval Radio Station
The Naval Radio Station (T), Arlington, VA was the first component of the later 
command, NAVCOMMSTA Washington DC. NAVRADSTA (T) Arlington, VA was officially 
commissioned on February 13, 1913. Contracts for one tower, 600 feet in height, 
two towers, 450 feet in height, and several buildings were awarded in June, 1911. 
The land was transferred from the War Department to the Department of the Navy 
by an Act of Congress in 1912. The station was built on part of the Fort Myer 
Military Reservation. Erected in 1913, the Naval Radio Station consisted of self 
supporting steel towers, one 600 foot and two 450 foot, over and above the 200 
foot elevation of the site, all similar to the Eiffel Tower in construction. The
station buildings contained radio apparatus, laboratories, storerooms, offices, 
and living quarters for the communicators. 

Arlington was the first Naval Communications facility wherein the words "Naval 
Radio Station" were used, instead of "Naval Wireless Station". The first trans- 
Atlantic voice communication was made in 1915, between the Arlington Naval Radio 
Station and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. The nation set its clocks by the 
Arlington Radio time signal, which originated at the Naval Observatory, also in
Arlington; and listened for Arlington's radio broadcasted weather reports. The 
towers were dismantled in 1941, as a menace to aircraft approaching the new 
Washington National Airport. Excellent photo (postcard) at the following link:  
<http://coldwar-c4i.net/ArlingtonWireless/postcard.html>.

On August 15, 1953, NAVCOMMSTA Washington DC was established. At that time, NCS 
Washington consisted of the Communications Centers at NAVRADSTA's Cheltenham, 
Annapolis and Arlington. On July 1, 1956, NAVRADSTA, Arlington, VA was dis-
established after more than 43 years of operation.

U.S. Coast Guard Air Station
The U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Arlington was commissioned as an Air Detachment on 
February 20, 1952. In 1964, the unit was redesignated as a Coast Guard Air Station. 
In 1971, the station complement was six officer aviators, one warrant officer, and 
26 enlisted Coastguardsmen. The Air Station is a tenant unit at the Ronald Reagan 
Washington National Airport, Arlington. In 1974, Air Station Arlington changed 
its name to Air Station Washington. The assigned mission of the Air Station is to 
provide VIP transportation for the Commandant of the Coast Guard and other required
use passengers, with around-the-world transportation capability, while maintaining 
long range command and control functionality. An array of communications equipment 
permits the Commandant to command from the aircraft as efficiently as from Coast
Guard Headquarters. Coast Guard Air Station Washington is currently an active 
station.

U.S. Naval Radio Station (T), Arlington, VA		13 Feb 1913	01 Jul 1956
Navy Direction Finding Site, Arlington, VA 
===================================================================================
Asmara, Ethiopia

Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population 
of around 579,000 people. Asmara is on the edge of an escarpment, a 7,600 foot 
plateau, 30 air miles from the Red Sea; that is both the northwestern edge of the 
Great Rift Valley and of the Eritrean highlands. Textiles and clothing, processed 
meat, beer, shoes, and ceramics are the major industrial products. Asmara started 
with four villages, to being a regional center under Emperor Yohannes IV of 
Ethiopia, to "Little Rome" of Mussolini's unsuccessful second Roman Empire, to 
being a provincial capital under Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia and lastly a 
national capital of Eritrea

Asmara grew from four villages founded in the twelfth century. Originally, it is 
said, there were four clans living in the Asmara area on the Kebessa Plateau: 
Gheza Gurtom, Gheza Shelele, Gheza Serenser and Gheza Asmae. Encouraged by their 
women, the men united the four clans and defeated the bandits who preyed on the 
area. After the victory, a new name was given to the place, Arbaete Asmera which 
literally means, in the Tigrinya language, the four united. Eventually Arbaete 
was dropped and it has been called Asmera, though there is still a zone called 
Arbaete Asmera.

During Emperor Haile Selassie's reign 1930-1936 and 1941-1974, Ethiopia was among the 
West's strongest allies in all of Africa. A treaty of amnesty and economic relations 
between Ethiopia and the U.S. was signed in September 1951, followed by two mutual 
defense agreements in 1953. Under Selassie, Ethiopia hosted the largest number of 
American Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, while over 10,OOO Ethiopian students 
studied in American universities between the 1950s and 1974. The U.S. also operated 
Kagnew Station a military communications facility in Asmara, near the Red Sea. Several 
thousand American servicemen were based there, and it was considered to be of great 
strategic importance in the 1950s and 1960s. 

In 1974, an Ethiopian military committee known as the Derg overthrew the 82-year-
old, pro-Western Emperor Haile Selassie. Two years later the Derg declared Ethiopia 
socialist, broke relations with Washington, and realigned the country with Moscow.
===================================================================================
Remembering Kagnew Station, By John R. Rasmuson
<http://www.ausa.org/pdfdocs/ArmyMag/June07/rasmuson.pdf>

In 1969, near the end of officer candidate school and confronted by a menu of 
unappetizing assignments, I impulsively struck a deal for a job at an Army Security 
Agency field station in Asmara, Ethiopia. That night, I called my wife from a pay
phone. "Get an atlas and find out where Ethiopia is," I told her. "I think we’re going
there." My understanding of things African was as shallow as that of most Americans
in the summer of 1969, I expect. After all, there were no CNN broadcasts of starvation 
or genocide or AIDS, no celebrities traipsing through refugee camps. So I imagine that 
in the afterglow of Apollo 11 and Woodstock, there was not much attention paid to the 
coup in Libya, where Capt. Moammar al-Qaddafi, 27, ousted King Idris I. Just a few weeks 
later, Lt. John R. Rasmuson, 23, reported to his first duty assignment at Kagnew Station 
in the Eritrean highlands. 

Eritrea, approximately the size of the state of New York, is literally the high ground 
of the Horn of Africa. Its mountainous interior reaches 8,000 feet. To the west, however, 
sparsely vegetated lowlands devolve in the Sudanese desert, and on the east, beyond the 
escarpments, coastal plains merge with the Great Rift Valley in the Danakil Depression,
reputed to be the hottest place on earth.

Asmara was the capital of Eritrea, then the northernmost province of Ethiopia. 
Eritrea had been a sovereign nation until colonized by Italy in 1890, but in the 
sorting out that followed World War II, the United Nations handed it over to Ethiopian 
Emperor Haile Selassie. It was an arrangement that didn’t sit well with Eritrean 
nationalists. They launched a secessionist movement in 1960 called the Eritrean
Liberation Front (ELF).

During World War II, Eritrea was the focal point of an American effort to blanket 
the Middle East with airfields, ordnance depots and support bases. It was under 
the aegis of the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 that the Royal Air Force Support Base at Gura 
(operated in secret by the Douglas Aircraft Company) and the U.S. Naval Repair Base 
at the Red Sea port of Massawa were established to support British forces fighting 
in Libya and Egypt. Both bases were closed following the defeat of Germany’s Afrika
Korps in early 1943. 

Kagnew Station had a different genesis. Its inception was a War Department memo dated 
January 26, 1943, titled "Establishment of a War Department Fixed Radio Station in 
Africa," which detailed the operational objectives for what was to become the 4th 
Detachment of the Second Signal Service Battalion (renamed the U.S. Army Security 
Agency (USASA) in 1945). An Army lieutenant was dispatched to Asmara in April 1943 
to conduct a feasibility study. He was soon joined by six enlisted men. They 
refurbished Radio Marina, an abandoned, Italian Naval radio station, and sent traffic 
samples to Washington. Eritrea’s geographical location, 15 degrees north of the 
equator at an altitude of 7,600 feet, contributed to extraordinary propagation of 
radio signals. (It was so good that, by the 1960s, the rock-and-roll programming on 
Kagnew’s 1,000-watt AM station was heard as far away as Australia, Finland and Brazil.) 
The quality of the samples caused the War Department to promptly expand operations. 
Within seven months, 54 American soldiers were working in underground rooms at what 
was known as Asmara Barracks.

On March 7, 1948, one Navy officer and six enlisted men established the U.S. Navy 
Communications Unit 3. They joined another Army communications unit, the 3176th 
Signal Service Detachment, which maintained circuits to New Delhi, Tehran and 
Washington. The name "Kagnew Station" came with the signing of the Base Rights
Agreement in 1953. Kagnew had several military associations in Ethiopian history: 
it was the name of a warhorse that, riderless, charged the Italians at the Battle 
of Adowa in 1896; and Ethiopia deployed the elite Kagnew Battalion to Korea in 
1951. Although the base was redesignated the 4th USASA Field Station in 1958, it 
was more commonly known as Kagnew Station, especially in East Africa.

By the time I arrived, it was a mature installation, thanks to a $70 million 
investment in infrastructure. Kagnew consisted of 3,400 acres in an archipelago
of eight fenced tracts. Six were either receiver or transmitter sites, squat, 
windowless buildings amid a web of antenna wire, and two were garrison enclaves
close to the city’s neighborhoods. Amenities for the 4,200 Americans included a 
school, a television station, a bowling alley and a movie theater where John 
Wayne’s "True Grit" set a box-office record of $1,035.75. 

Asmara belied the stereotypes of the "dark continent." It was a city with a colonial 
veneer of pastel stucco. The Italian legacy was evident in the shops and 
restaurants where you could wash down a plate of spaghetti alla carbonara with a 
bottle of locally brewed Melotti beer. Palm-lined streets overflowed with a 
continuous stream of cars, donkey carts, bicycles and goats; the air was redolent 
of dung and smoke and berberi, the ubiquitous cooking spice. 

There was also a whiff of revolution in the air. In Tripoli, Qaddafi’s anti-Western 
rhetoric was matched by support for an increasingly hostile Eritrean Liberation Front. 
In Washington, not long after Qaddafi summarily closed Wheelus Air Force Base, Army 
Chief of Staff Gen. William Westmoreland appointed a special assistant for the Modern 
Volunteer Army Program (MVA). 

The end of the draft was more than two years away when MVA’s revolutionary mandates 
sought to increase retention rates by improving soldiers’ quality of life. It seemed 
to me that Kagnew had pretty much anticipated all of the MVA innovations except two-
man barracks rooms and beer in the mess hall. No corner of the post had been 
overlooked. The 1966 historical report noted "improved morale of all detained 
persons" because "shelves were installed in all cells of the post guardhouse." Fresh 
from the Spartan regimen of officer candidate school, I found Kagnew to be more a 
genial company town than an Army base. Formations, inspections and physical training 
were passé. Houseboys maintained the barracks, made the beds and shined the shoes, 
so soldiers had plenty of time for intramural sports, motorcycles, University of 
Maryland classes and the "R&R" centers in Keren and Massawa. Soldier teams competed on 
a televised quiz show; others published a quarterly literary magazine called both/and. 

There were also 300 Army-sponsored hunting trips a year until the insurgency brought 
hunting to an end. Despite an increase in harassing attacks, however, the Ethiopian 
government refused to acknowledge the ELF as a political entity. Selassie publicly 
dismissed the attacks as the work of shifta (bandits), but in a private meeting in 
the White House in late 1970, he cited the ELF as a security threat as he pressed 
President Richard M. Nixon for more military aid. The ELF, which had found an oil-
rich patron in Qaddafi, responded with ever bolder tactics, including an ambush 
that killed the commanding general of the Ethiopian forces operating in Eritrea. 

The emperor’s occasional visits to Kagnew Station were more practical than 
political. He usually spent time in the dentist’s chair and in the aisles of the PX. 
In 1971, the post commander hosted a luncheon for him. From the adjutant came a 
remarkable protocol directive. "Ladies are requested to avoid wearing black, red 
or sleeveless dresses," it read. "Hats are in order but should be not too large. 
All ladies should wear gloves."

Selassie’s realm wasn’t a perfect duty station. There were periodic water 
shortages, gamma globulin shots in the butt and a persistent sense of isolation. 
"I do not believe we have a more remote station of our armed forces," observed Gen. 
Westmoreland while visiting in 1971. The mounting ELF insurgency only made the 
isolation more acute. The R&R center in Keren closed, and following the shooting 
death of a military police courier between Asmara and Massawa, the serpentine road 
to the Red Sea coast was off-limits to Americans.

But it was finally dollars, not bullets, that forced the U.S. Army out of Eritrea. 
In March 1972, USASA announced that it was withdrawing from Kagnew Station in order 
to save $12 million in annual costs. The Navy was designated to take over as the host 
unit in July 1973. As the transition got under way, with Qaddafi reportedly urging the
ELF to step up pressure on the Americans in Asmara, we built sandbag bunkers and 
manned them with armed guards around the clock. To fortify was so contrary to the
Kagnew experience that many, including me, were openly skeptical. That changed one 
night when a bullet plowed into one of the bunkers. My final tours as the staff duty 
officer were spent shuttling from bunker to bunker carrying a loaded .45 and the 
only Starlight scope we had.

I was among the last of the Army to leave, just days before the Navy was scheduled 
to take command. It was clear that they had little interest in running the only American
base in Africa; in fact, the Navy jumped ship well before a coup overthrew the 82-year-
old emperor in September 1974. As the war between the Ethiopian army and the Eritrean 
insurgents heated up, only a 12-man detachment of Navy radio operators remained, along 
with the Collins Radio employees working at Stonehouse, the deep-space intelligence 
facility, built in 1964; the last part of Kagnew Station occupied by U.S. forces. It 
was abandoned in 1977. The dozen Navy men lived in the guest house where my wife and 
I had spent our first days at Kagnew. Across the street, the hospital in which my two 
sons were born became a jail as the Ethiopian army occupied Kagnew’s garrison tracts. 
One of my Eritrean friends was incarcerated there for a time, a political prisoner. 
When released, he walked for weeks to the Eritrean camps in the Sudan and joined the 
guerrillas.

The first attack on the Ethiopians at Kagnew came on January 31, 1975. Incoming rocket-
propelled grenades interrupted a Navy poker game in the former officers’ club, and 
before the night was over, the Navy men had ducked a few errant bullets. >From then on, 
nighttime firefights were frequent as the Eritreans pressed the Soviet-backed Ethiopian 
forces. A curfew shut down the city, and a detachment of Marines guarded the U.S. 
consulate.

The end finally came in April 1977. Chuck Walker, the noncommissioned officer in charge 
of the Navy detachment, recalls the consulate giving them a few days’ notice. Armed 
Ethiopian soldiers stood by as they destroyed documents and crypto equipment. They 
were then driven directly to the airport where a C-141 evacuated them to Greece with 
only the clothes they were wearing. It took 14 more years for the Eritreans to win  
their war of independence, considerably longer for Qaddafi to come around. Mellower 
and more pragmatic at age 65, he has lived to see diplomatic relations restored with 
the United States.

Now, 30 years after the unceremonious withdrawal of the U.S. military from Africa, 
the exigencies of another worldwide war have brought the U.S. Army back to Ethiopia. 
In January, special operations forces launched attacks on al Qaeda in Somalia from 
Ethiopian staging areas. In a year or so, a new unified combatant command, U.S.
Africa Command, will set up shop somewhere on the continent. It is a belated step  
in redressing the neglect so long accorded an important region of the world. I  
imagine the higher-ups will look for a site with strategic prominence, easy 
communications, a temperate climate and a diverse, welcoming population. A return 
to Kagnew Station seems the perfect choice.
===================================================================================
Naval Communications Unit (NAVCOMMUNIT-3), 		07 Mar 1948 	22 Jun 1961 
   Asmara, Ethiopia
Naval Communications Unit (NAVCOMMUNIT), 		22 Jun 1961	   Jul 1973
   Asmara, Ethiopia
Naval Communications Station (NAVCOMMSTA) 		   Jul 1973    	   Jan 1975  	  
   Asmara, Ethiopia
Naval Communications Detachment, Asmara, Ethiopia	   Jan 1975	   Apr 1977
   at the U.S. Army Security Agency, Kagnew Station, 
   Asmara, Ethiopia.
===================================================================================
Bethany Beach, Delaware

Bethany Beach is an incorporated town located between the Atlantic Ocean and the 
inland bays in the southeastern corner of Sussex County, the largest of Delaware's 
three counties. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the 
town is 943. The summer population grows to about 9,500. The Town of Bethany Beach 
is on a headland, extending approximately one mile along the Delaware Bay barrier 
island complex, which extends from Cape Henlopen, Delaware to Chincoteague, Virginia. 
It is located six miles north of the Maryland state line and four miles south of 
Indian River inlet.

Bethany Beach, together with the towns of Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, 
South Bethany, and Fenwick Island, comprises Delaware's beach resort area and is 
Sussex County's most densely populated and fastest-growing area. Bethany Beach, 
South Bethany and Fenwick Island are popularly known as "The Quiet Resorts". This 
is in contradistinction to the wild atmosphere of Dewey Beach and the cosmopolitan 
bustle of Rehoboth Beach. Assisting Bethany Beach's reputation as a "quiet" place 
is the presence of Delaware Seashore State Park immediately to the north of the 
town, a six mile-long barrier island providing a substantial buffer from Dewey 
Beach's noise. Serving as another buffer is a large unincorporated area of private 
condominiums and multi-million-dollar beach homes between the park and the town.

Despite its small size, Bethany Beach boasts the usual attractions of a summer 
seaside resort, including a short boardwalk, a broad, sandy beach, motels, 
restaurants, and vacation homes. Because Bethany Beach does not sit on a barrier 
island, residential areas continue some distance to the west of the town's limits.

Bethany Beach was founded on July 12, 1901 by members of the Christian Church, also 
known as the Disciples of Christ of the Washington DC area and Pennsylvania. The 
original idea was not to find a town, but to find a suitable tract of land for a 
permanent yearly seaside assembly for the Christian churches of the country. 
Bethany was named by H.L. Atkinson, who won a nationwide contest and thereby was 
given a lot on the beach as his prize. The Missionary Society had founded the site 
in 1894 for the purpose of summer camp religious retreat meetings. The Improvement 
Company was disbanded in 1902, after the first town government consisting of a 
mayor, a secretary, a treasurer and six commissioners was formed. Bethany still 
reflects the character of the early settlers who were looking for "a haven of 
rest for quiet people."

The first building in Bethany was the tabernacle, an octagonal auditorium on the 
assembly grounds of the Christian Missionary Society. It was dedicated July 12, 
1901, though still uncompleted. It had brown shingles and was 100 feet in diameter 
with a cupola on top. It lasted 60 years before storms and termites did her in. 
That same day the deed to the tabernacle and surrounding 15 acres was presented 
to a founding father, Dr. F. D. Power, Washington minister, representing the 
Christian Missionary Society, by the Bethany Beach Improvement Company. Problems 
soon arose, however. A railroad had been promised but not delivered, water was 
poor, rains poured into the Auditorium and so the officers of the Bethany Beach 
Improvement Company were fired. Six businessmen from Pittsburgh were sent to bail 
them out. In the fall of 1902, they bought up the company, moved to the Beach and 
put their stamp on development for years to come. 

A U.S. Lifesaving Station was manned in the Bethany Beach community from 1907 to
1915. The station became a U.S. Coast Guard station 1915, and continued as an
active unit until 1945. A Naval Radio Compass station operated for years from 
Bethany Beach. Coastal Defense troops were quartered in the Town during World War 
II and the existing Delaware National Guard training installation was used as a 
German POW camp. It continues to be an active Delaware National Guard training camp.

A tract of land fronting 260 feet on the beach and 480 feet deep, purchased by the 
U.S. Government for $1 in 1905, became the site of the U.S. Naval Radio Compass 
Station at Bethany Beach. This and two other stations, at Cape Henlopen and Cape 
May, could locate the position of a ship off the capes with radio direction finders 
tuned to the ship's signals. In the same tract, just north of the Radio Compass 
Station, the U.S. Lifesaving Service built the Bethany Beach Lifesaving Station in 
1907. On January 28, 1915, the U.S. Lifesaving Service and its functions were 
consolidated with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to form the Coast Guard. The 
Radio Compass Station was closed in 1929, and a Navy Radio Beacon was installed. 
The U.S. Coast Guard Station at Bethany Beach was closed in 1945 and abandoned by 
1947. The building housing the Radio Compass Station, the modern Pilot House 
Apartments, fronting the beach on Fifth Street, is still painted battleship gray.

During World War II, soldiers were quartered at Bethany Beach for coastal anti-
aircraft defense. Journey’s End, on the northwest corner of Atlantic and Parkwood, 
was rechristened "Fort Maggie"; and for the duration, was used as a barracks by a 
group of U.S. Army Signal Corps men, who manned a radar station along the coast. 
It was named for Mrs. Margaret Hughes, the "house mother." The old auditorium on 
the church grounds, which had sometimes been used as a boy’s dorm during youth 
conferences, housed U.S. Navy personnel on coastal defense duty. In 1945, the 
Coast Guard Radio Station was right on the beach at one end of town. One of the 
two pay phones in town was on the porch at the Radio Station. Across the highway 
from the Coast Guard Station was a German POW camp. The Army Base, Fort Miles, 
in Lewes, Delaware, was about 15 miles away. Now located in the Delaware Seashore 
State Park, an observation watchtower was built on the Delaware coastline, near 
Dewey Beach during World War II, to look for German submarines preying on Allied 
shipping approaching Delaware Bay. Today, the watchtower still stands, near the 
northern boundary of the park. The tower has been refurbished, is a featured stop 
on nature walks, is open to the public and is surrounded by townhouses.

Constructed in 1876, the Indian River Lifesaving Station is located on the Atlantic 
Ocean between Dewey Beach and the Indian River Inlet in Delaware. The structure, 
one of many Lifesaving stations designed by the Federal government in 1875, is the 
oldest Lifesaving Station still standing in its original location, on the East Coast. 
Its lifesaving days ended when the Storm of 1962 filled it with more than two feet 
of sand. The U.S. Coast Guard then turned the building over to the Department of 
Transportation, which took it out of service. the station property was turned over 
to the state of Delaware in 1962, and was turned over to the GSA in 1963. The 
Delaware Seashore Preservation Foundation opened the old station to the public on 
October 13, 1996, and is seeking to restore the station buildings and the creation 
of a learning center. 

The U.S Coast Guard established a new station at Indian River Inlet on March 27, 
1964. Construction was completed in April of 1964. At that time, the station had 
a crew of 15 Coast Guardsmen. A new Operations Center and Station Office was built 
in 1981. The station is currently manned by one officer and 36 enlisted Coast 
Guardsmen. 

The Bethany Beach Airfield, a former military airfield, was apparently built at 
some point between 1929-32, and was located on the grounds of a small Delaware Army 
National Guard facility, less than a quarter-mile from the Atlantic Ocean. A 1932
chart depicted Bethany Beach as a civilian airport, with a radio beacon very close 
to the National Guard encampment, to the southeast. The airfield was described 
as being a U.S. Army airfield from 1933 through 1942. The field was listed as 
providing fuel during National Guard encampment. The Bethany Beach Airfield was 
probably available for civilian use and at times when the National Guard was 
conducting an encampment at the site. Listed as a commercial or municipal airport
in May of 1943, the airfield was closed at some point between 1943 and 1944, as it 
was no longer depicted on May, 1944 charts.

Bethany Beach airfield was described as an Army Aviation Training Site from the 
early to mid 1960's. In 1991 and 1999, the airfield was depicted as a single north/
south unpaved runway, labeled simply as "Landing Strip". The surrounding property 
was labeled as Delaware National Guard.

As of 2004, the Bethany Beach Training Site was still in use by the Delaware 
National Guard's 193rd Regiment, Regional Training Institute, the home of the 
Delaware Officer Candidate School, which has been conducting classes since 1957.
In 2005, the Bethany Beach airfield is still used for military helicopter 
operations, and also serves as a parade field for military reviews.

U.S. Naval Radio Compass Station, Bethany Beach, DE	       1905 	       1929
Navy Direction Finding Station, Bethany Beach, DE
   at U.S. Naval Radio Station, Bethany Beach, DE
===================================================================================
Bird Island, Arcata Bay, Arcata, Humboldt County, California

Bird Island is located at the mouth of Arcata Bay, between the Mad River and Arcata 
Channels in Humboldt County, near Eureka, CA.

Humboldt Bay is located in Humboldt County along the rugged North Coast of California. 
The regional center of Eureka and the college town of Arcata are located adjacent to 
the bay, which is the second largest in California. In addition to being home to more 
than 200 bird species, the bay is also the site of the state's largest commercial 
oyster harvesting operation. Humboldt Bay is the only deep water bay between San 
Francisco, California and Coos Bay, Oregon. Thus, the Port of Humboldt Bay is the 
only protected deep water port for the same distance. Despite being the best harbor 
along the approximately six hundred miles of coastline it went undiscovered for some 
time because it is extremely difficult to see from the ocean. It opens to the sea 
through a very narrow and treacherous passage. Contributing to its isolation was 
the coastal mountain range which extends from the ocean approximately one hundred 
and fifty miles inland.

Arcata is a city, adjacent to Humboldt Bay, in Humboldt County. The population was 
16,651 during the 2000 Census. This college town is home to both the Humboldt State 
University and the Humboldt Crabs, a successful semi-professional baseball team.

Arcata Bay is part of Humboldt Bay, which is fourteen miles in length, from north to 
south; covers more than 17,000 acres; and is the second largest coastal estuary in 
California. A significant portion of the northerly waters of Arcata Bay are owned by 
the City of Arcata, including Bird Island, and are within its city limit. 

In 1849, an expedition of seven men led by Josiah Gregg attempted to find an overland 
route to the Pacific ocean. They left from the gold town of Weaverville for the 150 
mile trek to the sea. Because of the density of the redwood forests and because Gregg 
stopped frequently to measure latitude and the size of the trees the expedition averaged 
only two miles a day. The party was near starvation when they emerged on the coast. 
After stocking up on food the party walked to San Francisco to report their discovery 
of the bay. In March 1850 two ships, the General Morgan and the Laura Virginia, were 
sent to the bay from San Francisco. After considerable initial difficulty due to sand 
bars and ocean swells the ships entered the bay. The sailors from the Laura Virginia 
named the bay after Alexander von Humboldt, a famous naturalist.

The local tribes refer to themselves as "Indians" and generally prefer that designation 
in favor of the more politically correct "Native American" or "Indigenous People" and 
the popular Canadian designation of "First Nation" is almost never used.

The Wiyot People and Yurok People lived in this area prior to Russian and European 
arrival. "Kori" is the name for the Wiyot settlement that existed on the site of what 
would become Arcata. The natives of this region are the farthest-southwest people whose 
language has Algonquian roots. The traditional homeland of the Wiyot ranged from the 
Little River in the north and continues south through Humboldt Bay (including the present 
cities of Eureka and Arcata) and then south to the lower Eel River basin. The traditional 
homeland of the Yurok ranges from Mad River, to beyond the Klamath River in the north. 

Arcata was originally founded in the spring of 1850, as the town of Union, the permanent 
name change occurred in 1860. Union was created as a port and reprovisioning center for 
the gold mines in the Klamath, Trinity, and Salmon mountains to the east. It was slightly 
closer to the mines than Eureka, which gave Union an early advantage. What was to become 
the first significant town on Humboldt Bay, began as Union Company employees laid out the 
plaza and first city streets in the Spring of 1850. By later in the 1850's redwood timber 
replaced the depleted gold fields as the economic driver for the region, and Eureka became 
the principal city on the bay, gaining the county seat by the end of the decade.

The City of Arcata, incorporated in 1858, is nestled on the northern coast of California, 
amid redwood forests, Humboldt Bay, and the Pacific Ocean; approximately 760 miles 
north of Los Angeles and 275 miles north of San Francisco. The nearest seaport is Eureka, 
five miles south, on Humboldt Bay.  

There is a deep water port in nearby Eureka. In 1854, the Union Wharf and Plank Walk 
Company built redwood plank and rails 2.7 miles out into the deeper water of Arcata Bay, 
providing Arcata with a deep-water seaport. This was initially a horse-drawn railroad, 
though it was later converted to steam. This eventually became the Arcata and Mad River 
Railroad (now defunct). Arcata's wharf is long gone, and only a few piers can be seen at 
low tide.

The importance of gold, however, was soon eclipsed by lumbering. It was timber resources, 
particularly the vast, virgin forests of giant redwoods, which covered the ridges and 
valleys along California's north coast, that sustained the development of Arcata through 
the 19th century and into the mid-twentieth century. By 1930, Arcata's population had 
reached 1,700 and was growing. A public water system and fire department came along in 
1884, followed by the Arcata Union newspaper in 1886, electricity in 1895, railroad 
connections with San Francisco in 1914, the establishment of Humboldt State Normal School, 
now Humboldt State University, in 1914, and the Redwood Highway in 1925.

The planning and construction of what is now the Arcata-Eureka Airport started in late 
1940 or early 1941. Humboldt County, in collaboration with the Civil Aeronautics 
Administration (CAA, the predecessor of the FAA), decided to construct a new airport. 
On August 2, 1941, the area located 15 miles north of Eureka, north of the unincorporated 
town of McKinleyville, California. was selected to become the site of an airport. The
site was located on a bluff, which rises abruptly 200 feet from the ocean. The 
development was planned for the area between the ocean and the Redwood Highway near 
Clam Beach, and near Dows Prairie. The new airport was part of a larger plan by the 
U.S. War Department to establish airfields that could be used by the military in 
times of war. 
  
Construction of the airport was underway when the U.S. entered World War II in December, 
1941. By 1942, the U.S. Navy took control of the airport and continued te construction 
of what was to become a Naval Auxiliary Air Station. The NAAS was administratively part 
of the Alameda Naval Air Station, which was being built near San Francisco. Thereafter, 
the airport,  
  
The mission of NAAS Arcata was pilot training, coastal defense, and for aircraft flown 
off aircraft carriers, returning from the Pacific theater. Later in the war it also 
became a place to test fog dispersal equipment. In March, 1944, station personnel 
numbered 153 officers and 532 enlisted men, with barracks for 180 officers and 732 men. 
The station had a 128 x 160-ft. Kodiak hangar, plus gun emplacements around the airfield. 

The war in the Pacific ended in August, 1945, and the Navy deactivated NAAS Arcata in 
May, 1946. The Navy retained ownership of the property. The airport was next knows as 
Landing Aides Experiment Station Arcata, from 1946 until 1950. Fog-dispersal operations 
continued at LAES Arcata until the end of 1949. In 1950, Congress discontinued 
appropriations for the Landing Aids Experiment Station, and the airport was given to 
Humboldt County by the U.S. Government, for use as a commercial airport.

In 1977, the U.S. Coast Guard opened an Air Station at the Arcata Eureka Municipal 
Airport. Several Navy structures have survived. 

Navy Direction Finding Station, Bird Island, CA
   at U.S. Naval Radio Station, Bird Island, CA
===================================================================================
Balboa, Panama Canal Zone

The Republic of Panama (Spanish: República de Panamá), commonly known as Panama, is 
the southern and easternmost country of Central America. A transcontinental country, 
its isthmus is the narrowest part of a natural land bridge between the continents of 
North America and South America. It borders Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the 
east, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. Before the 
canal was built, Panama's strategic location, at the wasp waist of the Americas, 
and the shortest landlink between the planet's two largest oceans, made it one of 
the great crossroads of the world. 

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Panama was widely settled by Chibchan, Chocoan, 
and Cueva peoples, among whom the largest group were the Cueva (whose specific 
language affiliation is poorly documented). However the chiefdoms in Panama showed 
some similarities to the Mesoamerican cultures of Ecuador and Brazil, semi-nomadic 
hunters and fishermen, they displayed the decapitated heads of enemies for respect. 
They worshiped the sun, moon and many the bones of ancestors.

Panama was part of the Spanish Empire for 300 years (1538-1821) and Panamanian 
fortunes fluctuated with the geopolitical importance of the isthmus to the Spanish 
crown. Panama's importance would wane significantly towards the end of the 17th 
century and fade almost altogether by the middle of the 18th as Spanish influence 
and power in Europe decreased; and as Spanish ships began to increasingly go around 
Cape Horn to reach the Atlantic. While the Panama route was short, it was also labor 
intensive and expensive because of the loading and unloading and backbreaking trek 
required to get from the one coast to the other. The Panama route was also 
vulnerable to attack from pirates (mostly Dutch and English) and from 'new world' 
Africans called cimarrons, who had freed themselves from enslavement and lived in 
communes or palenques around the Camino Real, in Panama's interior and on some of 
the islands off Panama's Pacific coast. 

In 1821, Panama declared its independence from Spain, and shared closer logistical 
ties with South America than Central America. While the other Central American 
nations declared full independence by 1840, during the next century Panama was 
controlled by Columbia and other nation's interests. From 1850 to 1900, Panama had 
forty different governments and thirteen U.S. interventions to suppress independence 
revolts and quell social disturbances. This was the beginning of a long-term hate 
among the Panamanian people against the U.S. military. The first such conflict was 
known as the Watermelon War of 1856, where white U.S. soldiers mistreated locals 
causing large-scale race riots that U.S. Marines eventually put down.

In the 1840s, two decades after the Monroe Doctrine declared U.S. intentions to be 
the dominant imperial power in the Western Hemisphere, some North American and 
French interests became excited about the prospects of constructing railroads 
and/or canals through Central America reducing transoceanic travel by about eleven 
thousand kilometers. In 1846, the U.S. and Colombia signed the Bidlack Mallarino 
Treaty, granting the U.S. rights to build railroads through Panama, as well as 
the power to militarily intervene against revolt guaranteeing Colombian control 
of the isthmus. The world's first transcontinental railroad, the Panama Railway, 
was completed in 1855 across the Isthmus from Puerto Colón to Panama City. It was 
used to transport fortune hunters who wanted quick passage to the gold fields of 
California, and carried west coast Central American coffee from Pacific ports to 
the eastern U,S. and Europe. The existence of the railroad made speculation about 
a Panamanian canal feasible. 

Modern Panamanian history has been shaped by the reality of transisthmian commerce, 
and by the possibility of a canal to replace the difficult overland route. In the 
1520s and 1530s, the Spanish crown ordered surveys of the isthmus to determine the 
feasibility of such a canal, but the idea was abandoned. From 1880 to 1889, a 
French company that had successfully built the Suez Canal, with U.S. permission 
attempted to construct a sea-level canal in the same general area as the present 
Panama Canal. The company workers faced insurmountable health problems such as 
yellow fever and malaria, as well as engineering challenges caused by frequent 
landslides, slippage of equipment and mud. In the end the company failed in a 
spectacular financial collapse. In 1902, congress approved U.S. President Theodore 
Roosevelt's plan to take on the abandoned works. The Colombian government had 
balked at the prospect of a U.S. controlled canal so the U.S. encouraged a handful 
of conservative Panamanian landholding families to demand independence from 
Columbia. The USS Nashville was dispatched to local waters around the Caribbean 
port City of Colón to deter any resistance from Bogotà and on the 3rd of November, 
1903, with U.S. encouragement and French financial support, Panama proclaimed its 
independence. Less than three weeks later, without a Panamanian in the room, the 
Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty was signed between the French and the U.S allowing for 
the construction of a canal and in perpetuity, U.S. sovereignty and control over 
a strip of land 10 miles wide and 50 miles long, straddling the new canal. The 
Panama Canal was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914 
and is considered one of the world's greatest engineering triumphs.

On September 7, 1977, perhaps feeling a bit guilty about retaining the canal in 
perpetuity, an agreement was signed to transfer the canal operations and fourteen 
U.S. Army bases to Panama by 1999. However, the U.S. did retain the right of military 
intervention. Certain portions of the zone, and increasing responsibility over the 
canal, were turned over in the intervening years. The entire Panama Canal, the area 
supporting the Canal, and the remaining U.S.S military bases were turned over to 
Panama on December 31, 1999. 

The U.S. strongly influences the local culture, but Panama also has strong influences 
from other global locations; Spain, Africa, the Caribbean, China, East India, and 
Europe. Panama City is the only Central American city that actually has a skyline, 
and is incredibly cosmopolitan and outward looking. Panama is a land of lush mountain 
forests, Caribbean beaches surrounded by coral reefs, vast ranches and farms below 
and surrounding mountain villages. Panama is a 21st century country, by far the most 
modern in Central America, efficient buses, fantastic roads, modern schools, reliable 
electricity, and state of the art telecommunications. Yet within a couple of hours, 
you enter a world thousands of years old, where dug-out canoes provide access to 
hidden remote villages of the indigenous Kuna indians, living in traditional patched 
cloth panel huts.

The culture, customs, and language of the Panamanians are predominantly Caribbean 
Spanish. Ethnically, the majority of the population is mestizo or any noticeable 
mixture of Spanish, Chinese, Amerindian, and African descent. Spanish is the 
official and dominant language; English is a common second language spoken by the 
West Indians and by many professionals. More than half the population lives in the 
Panama City-Colón metropolitan corridor.

Balboa
The town of Balboa, founded by the U.S. during the construction of the Panama Canal, 
was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spanish conquistador credited with 
discovering the Pacific Ocean. The name was suggested to the Canal Zone authorities 
by the Peruvian ambassador to Panama. Prior to being drained, filled and leveled by 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the hilly area north of Panama City was home to a 
few subsistence ranches and unused marshlands.

The town of Balboa, like most towns in the Canal Zone, was served by Canal Zone 
Government-operated schools, post office, police and fire stations, commissary, 
cafeteria, yacht club, service center and recreational facilities. Balboa's children 
were educated at the Balboa Elementary School, Balboa High School, and the private 
St. Mary's School. The town was also home to two private banks, a credit union, a 
Jewish Welfare Board, several Christian denomination churches, civic clubs, a 
masonic temple and a YMCA.

The Fort Amador Navy Sector was originally constructed in 1914 as the Balboa Naval 
Radio Station, one of the earliest Naval stations in the Canal Zone. It served as 
the Headquarters for major U.S. Navy activities in Panama from 1918 though 1993. 
In 1940-1941, the Fifteenth Naval District Headquarters building (Bryan Hall) was 
constructed on this site. The Fifteenth Naval District was disestablished in 1976 
and replaced by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (COMUSNAVSO), which 
merged with the U.S. Naval Station Panama Canal. COMUSNAVSO was disestablished in 
1991 and replaced by Commander-in-Chief Atlantic Fleet Detachment South 
(CINCLANTFLTSO). The Navy sector of Fort Amador was transferred to Panama October 
1, 1996, along with the remaining part of the Army sector of Fort Amador.

Originally called the Balboa Fill Landing Field, Albrook Field was a U.S. military 
base constructed in 1922 in Balboa, by which time the need for an airfield on the 
Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama had become apparent to then Army Air Service 
and Panama Canal Department officials. It was formally established as an independent 
installation in 1924, the first installation on the Pacific side of Panama, 
established specifically as an airfield. It was named Albrook Field in honor of 
First Lieutenant Frank P. Andrew, its first commander. Between 1924 and 1961, 
Albrook Field was used as the first commercial airport of the old Canal Zone;
and was also used as a homebase for combat aircraft from 1943 until 1989. Albrook 
hosted the Panama Canal Air Force (PCAF) in 1940; the Caribbean Air Force in 1941; 
the Caribbean Air Command from late 1948 to 1963; U.S. Air Forces Southern Command 
(1963-1976); U.S. Air Force Southern Air Division (1976-1989) (which moved from 
Albrook to Howard Air Force Base in 1978); and the 830th Air Division (1989-1991). 
>From the 1940s until 1989, Albrook was the home of the Inter-American Air Forces 
Academy (IAAFA). Albrook became an Air Force Base in 1948, and in 1975, it was 
downgraded to an Air Force Station. The airstrip, adjacent hangars and buildings 
(Albrook Army Airfield) were transferred to Panama on October 1, 1979, along with 
the adjacent the PAD (Panama Air Depot) Area which was transferred in stages 
through 1982. Albrook Air Force Station was transferred to Panama on October 1, 
1997. Albrook Field is now the "Marcos A. Gelabert", Panamanian national airport. 

Until 1979, when the Canal Zone was abolished under the terms of the Panama Canal 
Treaties, the town of Balboa was the administrative center of the Canal Zone, a 
U.S. territory. The Panama Canal's Administration Building, former seat of the 
Canal Zone Government and Panama Canal Company, is located in Balboa Heights and 
currently houses the Panama Canal Administration (ACP).

Balboa is now considered part of Panama City's corregimiento of Ancón. Since its 
incorporation into the Republic of Panama, Balboa has been redeveloped to enhance 
the port's capacity and to adapt to private ownership of houses and commercial 
enterprises. The emphasis on exploiting Balboa's location has resulted in increased 
car traffic, air pollution and the degradation of the town's former harmonious 
layout. The demographic changes resulting from the departure of most of the town's 
American population has also brought the closure of most of the town's former public 
facilities and institutions, including Balboa High School and Balboa Elementary 
School.

Sightseeing highlights for anyone visiting Balboa today include the Administration 
Building, the Goethals Memorial, the Prado, the remaining English-language 
churches, the somewhat well preserved architecture of the Canal Zone era, and two 
handicrafts markets. As it was during the Canal Zone (1904-1979), Balboa is the 
seat of the Panama Canal's administrative offices and the port of Balboa, one of 
Panama's main ports. The population as of the 1990 census was 1,214. The currency 
of Panama is the balboa, which is copmprised of 100 centésimos. The balboa has 
been tied to the U.S. dollar (which is legal tender in Panama).

On June 6, 1941, Naval Air Station, Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, was established.

Navy Direction Finding Station, Balboa, Panama		       1938 	   Aug 1941 
Navy Radio Intercept Station, Balboa, Panama 		Spring 1940 	   Aug 1941
   DF and RI moved to COMSUPPACT Toro Point, Panama			   Aug 1941
===================================================================================
Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine

Bar Harbor is a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County. As of the 2000 census, 
its population was 4,820. A port of entry for Bay Ferries from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, 
Bar Harbor is a famous summer colony in the Down East region of Maine. It is home to 
the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory and Mount Desert Island Biological 
Laboratory. Bar Harbor is home to the largest parts of Acadia National Park.

Abenaki Native Americans called the island Pemetic, meaning "sloping land." Here they 
fished, hunted and gathered berries. In 1604, French explorer Samuel de Champlain is 
believed to have run aground at Otter Point, where he met members of the tribe. He 
named the island Isles des Monts Deserts, meaning "island of barren mountains", now 
called Mount Desert Island, the largest in Maine. First settled in 1763, by Israel 
Higgins and John Thomas, the community was incorporated in 1796 as Eden, after Sir 
Richard Eden, an English statesman. Early industries included fishing, lumbering and 
shipbuilding. With the best soil on Mount Desert Island, it also developed agriculture. 

By 1880, there were 30 hotels, with tourists arriving by train and ferry to the Gilded 
Age resort that would rival Newport, Rhode Island. The rich and famous tried to outdo 
each other with entertaining and estates. A glimpse of their lifestyles was available 
from the Shore Path, a walkway skirting waterfront lawns. Yachting, garden parties at 
the Pot & Kettle Club, and carriage rides up Cadillac Mountain were popular diversions. 
Others enjoyed horse-racing at Robin Hood Park-Morrell Park. President William Howard 
Taft played golf in 1910 at the Kebo Valley Golf Club. On March 3, 1918, Eden was 
changed to Bar Harbor, after Bar Island which protects the harbor. The name would become 
synonymous with elite wealth. It was the birthplace of vice-president Nelson Rockefeller.

In 1947, however, Maine experienced a severe drought. Sparks at a cranberry bog in 
Hull's Cove ignited a wildfire which intensified over 10 days. Nearly half the eastern 
side of Mount Desert Island burned, including 67 palatial summer houses on Millionaires' 
Row. Five historic grand hotels were destroyed, in addition to 170 permanent homes. 
Over 10,000 acres of Acadia National Park were destroyed. Fortunately, the town's 
business district was spared, including Mount Desert Street, where several former 
summer homes within a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic 
Places operate as inns.

During World War I, a Navy Direction Finding Station was established at the U.S. Naval 
Radio Station at Bar Harbor. The DF Station at NAVRADSTA Bar Harbor was involved in 
radio intercept activities as early as November, 1931. The station was subsequently 
relocated across Frenchman Bay, to NSGA Winter Harbor, in early 1935. Radio interception 
gradually supplemented HFDF as a form of communications intelligence. Site selection 
for interception operations was similar to that for HFDF stations. 

Navy Direction Finding Station, Bar Harbor, ME		    Nov 1931	 Early 1935
   at U.S. Naval Radio Station, Bar Harbor, ME
===================================================================================
Brazil

Bahia, São Salvador da Baía, Brazil 
Belem, Pará, Brazil
Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
Recife, Pina, Pernambuco, Brazil

Bahia, São Salvador da Baía, Brazil

Salvador (in full, São Salvador da Baía de Todos os Santos, or in literal translation: 
"Holy Savior of All Saints' Bay") is a city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the 
capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. The city was for a long time 
also known as Bahia, and appears under that name (or as Salvador da Bahia, Salvador 
of Bahia so as to differentiate it from other Brazilian cities of the same name) on 
many maps and books from before the mid 20th century. Salvador is the third most 
populous Brazilian city, after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and it is the most 
populous city in Northeastern Brazil, being a cultural reference in Brazil for its 
cuisine, music and architecture. Its metropolitan area is the wealthiest in the 
northeastern region. 80% of the population of Salvador is of Black African origin, 
and African influence in all cultural aspects of the city turns it into the 
epicenter of "Negro culture" in Brazil. The historical center of the Salvador, 
frequently called the Pelourinho, is extremely rich in historical monuments dating 
from the 17th through the 19th centuries and has was declared a World Heritage Site 
by UNESCO in 1985.

Salvador is located on a small, roughly triangular peninsula that separates Todos 
os Santos Bay from the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay, which gets its 
name from having been discovered on All Saints' Day forms a superb natural harbor, 
and Salvador is a major export port, lying at the heart of the Recôncavo Baiano, 
a rich agricultural and industrial region encompassing the northern portion of 
coastal Bahia. The local terrain is diverse ranging from flat to rolling to 
hills and low mountains.

Those first Europeans were Spaniards under the command of Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, 
who on January 26, 1500, landed to the north of what is now Bahia, close to the 
location of present-day Recife (capital of the state of Pernambuco).  Pinzón had 
also been the captain of the Niña (as in the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria) 
when Christopher Columbus made his maiden voyage to the New World.

Next to arrive was the fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral, who was actually on his 
way to India via a wide southernly swing out into the Atlantic Ocean (to avoid 
unfavorable currents) before heading east around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.  
Cabral's fleet landed in the territory which would come to be called "Brazil" 
(in English anyway; in Portuguese it's "Brasil") on the April 21, 1500, 
anchoring at a site he named "Porto Seguro" (or "Safe Port"). Porto Seguro is 
now a town located in present-day Bahia).

Cabral hadn't planned on landing there, at least not openly so. Common wisdom 
is that he was blown off course, but some people believe that he'd been secretly 
instructed by King Dom Manuel I to land for purpose of securing Portugal's 
rights to the territory.  Whatever the case he did claim for Portugal the 
ground upon which he stood (this was on the 22nd of April, the day he himself 
went ashore), calling it the Ilha da Vera Cruz (Island of the True Cross).  
When it was discovered he'd actually been standing on a continent -- not an 
island -- the name was changed to Terra da Vera Cruz (Land of the True Cross). 

Then on November 1, 1501, a ship captained by Amerigo Vespucci put into an 
enormous bay (November 1st is All Saints Day, and for this reason Amerigo named 
the bay "Bahia de Todos os Santos" -- "Bay of All Saints"). Amerigo also gave 
his own name to the entire continent via the use of a latinized form of it by 
mapmaker Martin Walseemüller in 1507. "America" at first applied only to the 
continent of South America.

Although Baía de Todos os Santos was first encountered by Europeans and christened 
in 1502, the city of Salvador was not founded until 1549 by a fleet of Portuguese 
settlers headed by Tomé de Sousa, the first Governor-General of Brazil. Built in 
a high cliff overlooking All Saints bay as the first colonial capital of Brazil, 
it quickly became its main sea port and an important center of the sugar industry 
and the slave trade. Since its birth, Salvador was divided into an upper and a 
lower city. The upper city was the administrative and main religious area and it 
was where the majority of the population lived. The lower city was the financial 
center, with a port and market. In the last century, funiculars and an elevator, 
the Elevador Lacerda, were built to link both areas.

Salvador was the first capital of Brazil and remained so until 1763, when it was 
succeeded by Rio de Janeiro, the new economic power center of that era. The city 
became a base for the Brazilian independence movement and was attacked by 
Portuguese troops in 1812, before being officially liberated on July 2, 1823. 
It settled into graceful decline over the next 150 years, out of the mainstream 
of Brazilian industrialization. It remains, however, a national cultural and 
tourist center. By 1948 the city had some 340,000 people, and was already Brazil's 
fourth largest city. By 1991 the population was 2.08 million.

Belem, Pará, Brazil

Belém is a city in the northern part of Brazil. It is the capital and also the 
largest city of the state of Pará. Its metropolitan area has approximately 2.09 
million inhabitants. It is the entrance gate and, together with Manaus, the most 
important city in the north of Brazil. It is also known as Metropolis of the 
Brazilian Amazon region or Cidade das Mangueiras (city of mango trees) due to 
the number of those trees found in the city. Belém is served by the Val de Cães 
International Airport that connects the city to the rest of the country and other 
cities in South America. Brazilians often refer to the city as Belém do Pará 
("Belém of Pará") rather than just Belém so as to differentiate it from Bethlehem 
in the West Bank.

The city was founded on January 12, 1616 by Capitain Francisco Caldeiras de Castelo 
Branco, who was sent by the Portuguese crown to defend the region against French, 
Dutch and British colonization attempts. For this purpose, he built a fortress 
called Forte do Presépio (currently called Forte do Castelo). Initially, the city 
was named Feliz Lusitânia. Later it was renamed to Santa Maria do Grão Pará as well 
as Santa Maria de Belém do Grão Pará, finally receiving its current name Belém.

Belém was the first European colony on the Amazon, but didn't become part of the 
Brazilian nation until 1775. Remote from the rest of the county and strongly linked 
to Portugal, Belém accepted Brazil's independence only in August 1823, almost one 
year after its declaration.

In 1835, it was a town of about 13,000, and extended on a grid pattern for a mere 
eight or nine blocks from the banks of the Pará River. A small hill overlooking 
the main harbour was topped by a colonial Portuguese fort and shore batteries.
Between 1835 and 1840 Belém witnessed the Revolta dos Cabanos also known as the 
Cabanagem, a revolt considered to have had the most authentic popular participation 
in the country's history. As the gateway to the Amazon, the port and city grew 
tremendously in size and importance during the nineteenth century rubber boom. 

Belém is one of Brazil's busiest ports, about 60 miles upriver from the Atlantic 
ocean. The river is the Pará, part of the greater Amazon river system, separated 
from the larger part of the Amazon delta by Ilha de Marajó. Belém is built on a 
number of small islands intersected by channels and other rivers. 

Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Natal is the capital city of Rio Grande do Norte, a north eastern state in Brazil. 
The implementation of the Coastal Highway, a 4.9 mile long avenue along the shore, 
was the true starting point for the beginning of tourist activity in the State in 
the 1980s. That is where the main hotels and restaurants of the capital city, 
Natal, are concentrated. Improvements in tourist infrastructure and conservation 
of the natural heritage are some of the actions given priority ever since by the 
state government. One of the highlights was the creation of the Dune State Park, 
which aims to preserve the chain of sand dunes that surround the city. And thus, 
Natal became the entry gate to the beautiful beaches of the State of Rio Grande 
do Norte. Many of them are still semi-wild, such as Pipa and Pirangi; and others 
are the liveliest, such as Genipabu and Tibau do Sul.

The Augusto Severo International Airport connects Natal with many Brazilian cities 
and also operates some international flights.

The northeastern tip of South America, Cabo São Roque, 20 miles to the north of 
Natal and the closest point to Europe from Latin America, was first visited by 
European navigators in 1501, in the 1501-1502 Portuguese expedition led by Amerigo 
Vespucci, who named the spot after the saint of the day. For decades thereafter, 
no permanent European settlement was established in the area, inhabited by the 
Potiguar tribe. In 1597, after some years during which French pirates, led by 
Jacques Riffault, established regular commercial activities with the native 
population, the ninth Portuguese Governor-General of Brazil, Francisco de Sousa, 
ordered the expulsion of the buccaneers. The successful expedition was led by 
the Captain-Major of the Captaincy of Pernambuco, Manuel de Mascarenhas Homem, 
with the assistance of Jerônimo de Albuquerque Maranhão.

Albuquerque Maranhão began on January 6, 1598 the construction of the Fort of the 
Holy Kings or of the Magi-Kings ("Forte dos Santos Reis" or "Forte dos Reis Magos"), 
named after the Three Wise Men, honored in the Christian feast of the Epiphany, 
celebrated on that day. On December 25, 1599, Natal (whose name means Nativity or 
Christmas in Portuguese) was established as a village outside the fort. The fort, 
city, and surrounding areas were occupied by Dutch forces from 1633 to 1654.

The sandy soil of Natal prevented the city from becoming a producer of sugarcane, 
during the colonial times. For centuries, the economy of the State was based on 
the raising of cattle in the dry interior lands; the cattle was sent alive to the 
larger centers, to be used as traction, or was turned into jerked beef, to be used 
as food; the most typical food of Natal, "carne de sol" (sun meat), has origins in 
that jerked beef.

Last century, Natal benefited from the growth of the industries of salt (the north 
of Rio Grande do Norte is the largest producer in Brazil) and petroleum (the largest 
inland Brazilian reserves are in the State). Natal grew quickly, but in a somewhat 
planned way (compared to other major Brazilian cities); transit flows smoothly, 
public services are well distributed, ecologic conscience is visible; violence 
levels are low. Tourists (first Brazilians, more recently foreigners) discovered 
the city, which became one of the major tourist destinations in Brazil.

Because of its strategic position (Natal is one of the cities in Brazil nearest 
to Western Europe and Africa, especially Dakar, Senegal), an American Air Base 
was built in a suburb of Natal, named Parnamirim during World War II, as part of 
Operation Rainbow. This base provided support for allied troops, who launched air 
raids on German-occupied North Africa. Thousands of American soldiers were sent to 
Natal, and their presence left traces in the culture of the city.

Recife, Pina, Pernambuco, Brazil

Recife (Portuguese for reef) is the second largest city in the Northeastern Region 
of Brazil, the largest metropolitan area and one of the most important cultural, 
economic, political and science-minded city in the region. It is the fifth largest 
metropolitan area in Brazil and the capital of Pernambuco. Recife is where the 
Beberibe River meets the Capibaribe River to flow into the Atlantic Ocean. It is a 
major port on the Atlantic Ocean. Recife is served by Guararapes International 
Airport. Surrounded by rivers and crossed by bridges, Recife is full of islands 
and mangroves. It is known as the Brazilian Venice, thanks to its fluvial 
resemblance with that European city, and is considered one of Brazil's cultural 
capitals.

The area around Recife was one of the first in Brazil to be settled by the 
Portuguese Crown. In 1534, King John III of Portugal divided Brazil into Hereditary 
Captaincies (Capitanias Hereditárias, in Portuguese); the Portuguese realized 
that they had no human or financial resources to invest in such a large and distant 
colony, and decided to assign this task to private entrepreneurs, called Donatários 
(this system had already been successful in the settlement of the Portuguese 
colonies in Africa). Because of several problems (the most obvious being the lack 
of support from the Portuguese metropolis), most Captaincies failed. One of the 
few to prosper was the Captaincy of Pernambuco, which was assigned to Duarte 
Coelho Pereira (the man who founded Olinda and became famous for expressing his 
enchantment with the beauty of the place, giving the name to the city).

Pernambuco prospered from the sugarcane industry (beet sugar was not industrially 
produced in Europe until the beginning of the 19th century). At the time, in Europe, 
sugarcane plantations could be grown only in Andalusia and the Algarve; in the 
1420s, sugarcane was carried to the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores; the 
sugar from Brazil was muchly appreciated in Europe. Duarte Coelho found in 
Pernambuco plenty of fertile land and an excellent climate for the cultivation of 
cane; all he needed was labor to work in the crops and to keep the "engenhos" 
(rustic wooden machinery) moving.

At first, the Portuguese tried to use the indigenous peoples of Brazil, but they 
soon realized that the indigenous culture was not compatible with the work in the 
engenhos. The solution was to import black slaves from Africa; from the 16th to 
the 19th century, Pernambuco received many slaves, making it one of the Brazilian 
States where black culture has the most visible traces (in dance, music, culinary, 
etc). Alone, this mixture of Portuguese, Indians and black slaves would be enough 
to make Recife one of the most culturally diverse cities in Brazil. The Dutch 
added to the mix. From 1580 to 1640, the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal were 
unified under the rule of the Spain. Spain was engaged in a war against the 
Netherlands, and determined that the Dutch, who were the main distributors of 
Brazilian sugar in Europe, would be prohibited from coming to Brazil.

The Dutch decided to invade several sugar producing cities in Brazil, including 
Salvador (Bahia) and Natal. From 1630 to 1654, they took control of Recife and 
Olinda. During this period, Recife became one of the most cosmopolitan cities of 
the world. The first Jewish community and the first synagogue of the Americas 
was founded in the city. The inhabitants fought on their own to expel the Dutch, 
being helped by the Dutch being otherwise occupied with the First Anglo-Dutch 
War. This was known as the Insurreição Pernambucana (Pernambucan Insurrection). 
Most of the Jews fled to Amsterdam; others fled to North America, starting the 
first Jewish community of New Amsterdam (now known as New York City).

During the 18th century, riots spread throughout the city, in which the rich 
farmers of Olinda and the traders from Recife clashed. Recife had a clear 
advantage in relation to Olinda: Olinda has no harbour, while Recife's Harbor 
is one of the largest on the Atlantic. Recife's victory asserted the supremacy 
of its bourgeoisie over the decadent sugar aristocrats of Olinda. This was a 
decisive factor for Recife's growth. Recife is now a large city whereas Olinda 
is a small historical town.

Pernambuco State has the 5th highest sugarcane Brazilian production. Brazil is 
by far the largest producer of alcohol fuel in the world, typically fermenting 
ethanol from sugarcane and sugar beets. The country produces a total of 18 
billion liters annually, of which 3.5 billion are exported, 2 billion of them 
to the U.S. Alcohol cars debuted in the Brazilian market in 1978 and became 
quite popular because of heavy subsidy, but in the 80's prices rose and gasoline 
regained the leading market share. But from 2004 on, alcohol is rapidly rising 
its market share once again because of new technologies involving hybrid fuel 
car engines called "Flex" by all major car manufacturers (Volkswagen, General 
Motors, Ford, Peugeot, Honda, Citroën, Fiat, etc.). "Flex" engines work with 
gasoline, alcohol or any mixture of both fuels. As of February 2007, 
approximately 80% of new vehicles sold in Brazil are hybrid fuel. Because of 
the Brazilian leading production and technology, many countries became very 
interested in importing alcohol fuel and adopting the "Flex" vehicle concept. 
On March 7, 2007, U.S. president George W. Bush visited the city of São Paulo 
to sign agreements with Brazilian president Lula on importing alcohol and its 
technology as an alternative fuel.

U.S. Bases in Brazil during World War II
In July 1941, The U.S. Government agreed to cooperate with Brazil in the protection 
of her vulnerable northeast coastline. A contract was made with a Pan American 
World Airways subsidiary, the Airport Development Program, to build and operate 
airbases at Natal, Bahia, and São Luís. Airbases had already been built in Africa 
under the Airport Development Program. The South Atlantic air route was established
from the U.S. through Brazil to Africa, then on to Great Britain, and the Far East.

The U.S. Army had planned the airfields in 1940, solely as a hemisphere defense 
measure. American ground and air forces would now be required to protect the string 
of vital airfields, extending from the Guianas to Natal, against sabotage or external 
attack. As construction progressed, and the airfields became partially usable in the 
latter half of 1941, they began to serve a new purpose. They became essential links 
in the South Atlantic airway, over which airplanes were being ferried and high-
priority materials were transported to British forces in Africa and the Middle East.
 
In conjunction with the operation of these bases, and equally important to the 
Allied cause, was the permission granted by the Brazilian Government to use them 
for refueling and servicing American-built Lend-Lease aircraft, manned by civilian 
crews, bound for the British Royal Air Force. Shortly after the U.S. declared war, 
unrestricted ferrying of personnel and materiel by the U.S. Army through these 
bases was allowed. 

The Lend-Lease Act, passed in March 1941, authorized the War Department to supply 
war materiel to Allied countries. Approximately $25 billion worth of supplies and 
equipment was forwarded under this program, the majority of which went to the 
British. 

In view of improvement of the air-ground defense of Brazil, and its acknowledged 
assistance in the prosecution of the war, the U.S.-Brazilian Mutual Pact Agreement 
was approved on May 27, 1942. One of the important provisions of this pact was for 
the U.S. to come to the assistance of Brazil, if the latter were attacked by the 
Axis Powers. On August 22, 1942, Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy, the 
first South American country to do so. 

In 1941, Brazil permitted the U.S. to set up air bases in Bahia (São Salvador da 
Baía), Recife in Pernambuco and Natal in Rio Grande do Norte. Beginning in June, 
1941, U.S. Navy surface vessels of the Navy's South Atlantic patrol force began 
to utilize the ports of Recife and Bahia as operating bases. At the end of October, 
1941, the Navy Department insisted that Natal must become "a Naval Base and Naval 
Command." At the end of November, 1941, the Navy Department again asked "that the 
Army postpone further requests to base troops or planes in Brazil, until after 
the Navy is fully established there." On December 11, 1941, the U.S. Navy's VP-52 
patrol squadron reached the Brazilian port city of Natal, Brazil.

On December 15, 1941, three fifty-man U.S. Marine Corps companies, the 17th, 18th, 
and 19th Marine Provisional Companies, departed from Quantico by air to Brazil; 
for the express purpose of guarding the airfields at Belém, Natal, and Recife, until
a reinforced U.S. Army infantry regiment could be dispatched. The remainder of a 
reinforced U.S. Army division was to follow, as soon as additional sea transportation 
could be arranged. Brazil had consented to admit U.S. Marines under the guise of 
technicians for servicing aircraft. The three companies arrived on December 19, 
1941, and were dispatched to the airfields at Belém, Natal, and Recife.

On March 9, 1942, President Vargas of Brazil approved "a wide reaching program for 
Northeast Brazil" that included the stationing of eight hundred additional U.S. 
Army maintenance personnel, new construction, and unrestricted flight privileges 
for Army aircraft. In mid April, 1942, The first increment of the reinforcement, 
six B-25's and six P-40's, departed from the U.S. Army Air Corps, Bolling Field in 
Washington DC. A contingent of 150 U.S. Army officers and enlisted men also arrived 
in Northeast Brazil. By December 1942, the U.S. Army had established a theater 
organization in Northeast Brazil, designated the U.S. Army Forces South Atlantic.

On April 7, 1942, additional VP patrol aircraft began arriving at Natal, Brazil, for 
operations in the South Atlantic. In addition to the patrol squadrons in Natal, 
the Navy's South Atlantic Force, began operations with the Brazilian Naval and 
Air Forces in the spring of 1942. Headquartered at Recife, the South Atlantic 
Force (redesignated the U.S. Fourth Fleet in March, 1943), commanded by Vice Admiral 
Jonas H. Ingram, was a relatively small light cruiser and destroyer force with a 
very wide field of operations and a variety of duties. It ranged from the western 
South Atlantic, escorted convoys, intercepted blockade runners that operated from 
the Far East around Cape Horn to Axis Europe, and searched for Axis submarines 
and surface raiders. The patrolling ships provided protection to the long coast 
line of Brazil from Bahia northward, as well as to the mid-ocean garrison of 
American forces, established on Ascension Island in 1942. Navy seaplanes began 
operating from Brazilian bases in December, 1941. In April, 1942, the Navy brought 
in land-based amphibian planes, to operate in patrols from the air bases at Natal 
and Recife. 

On April 27, 1942, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed that the U.S. Navy be given 
the use of U.S. Army facilities at the air bases being manned in Belem, Natal and
Recife; as necessary for the operation and maintenance of land-based, carrier-based, 
or amphibian type aircraft. Shortly thereafter, Brazil declared war on Germany and 
Italy on August 22, 1942. Eight days after the Brazilian declaration of war, Admiral 
Ingram announced that as senior U.S. commander in the area, he was assuming 
operational command as Chief of the Allied Forces in the South Atlantic. A few days 
later, Admiral Ingram and the British West African Naval Commander met and the U.S. 
Navy and British Royal Navy arranged a geographical division of the South Atlantic, 
that made its western half, to and including Ascension Island, an American defense 
responsibility. 

On September 16, 1942, VADM Ingram's command, formerly Task Force 23, was 
redesignated as the South Atlantic Force, Atlantic Fleet. Officially, on November 
24, 1942, (actually in early December) the U.S. Army theater headquarters at Recife 
was established as the U.S. Army Forces South Atlantic. A separate South Atlantic 
Wing headquarters had been established at Natal on November 10, 1942.  

U.S. South Atlantic Force operations in Brazil came to an end soon after Japan's 
surrender. Preparations for the reduction and close-out of U.S. Army and U.S. Navy 
operations in Brazil began in March, 1945. U.S. Naval forces began withdrawing from 
Brazil in June, 1945. The U.S. Naval Operating Facility at Belem (which opened on 
March 26, 1943); and the U.S. Naval Air Facility at Belem (which opened on November 
26, 1943) both closed on June 15, 1945. The U.S. Naval Air Facility at Natal (which 
opened on March 27, 1943); and the U.S. Naval Operating Facility at Natal (which 
opened on September 26, 1943) both closed on June 24, 1945. The U.S. Naval Air 
Facility Aratu in Bahia (which opened on November 26, 1943); and the U.S. Naval 
Operating Facility, Pici Field in Fortaleza (which opened on March 27, 1943) both 
closed on June 30, 1945. The U.S. Naval Operating Facility at Recife (which had 
opened on March 27, 1943); and the U.S. Naval Air Facility at Recife (which had 
opened on October 1, 1943) both closed on July 17, 1945.

The U.S. Army Forces South Atlantic theater organization was inactivated on 
October 31, 1945; and the few remaining U.S. Army troops were turned over to the 
South Atlantic Wing of the Air Transport Command. In November, 1945, the U.S. 
Army Air Transport Command closed, the last unit to depart Brazil.

Bahia, Brazil
Navy Direction Finding Station, Bahia, Brazil		14 Sep 1943 	30 Jun 1945
   Transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard 

Belem, Brazil 
Naval Supplementary Radio Station (DF), Belem, Brazil	   Sep 1943 	15 Jun 1945
   Transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard  

Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
Navy Direction Finding Station, Natal, Rio Grande, 	   Aug 1943	   Jun 1945
   Brazil
   Transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard 

Point Santa Cruz, Brazil 
Navy Direction Finding Station, Point Santa Cruz, Brazil   Aug 1943	   Jun 1945
   Transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard

Recife, Brazil 
Naval Supplementary Radio Station (DF RI), Recife, Brazil  Jul 1943 	17 Jul 1945 
Naval Communications Unit (NAVCOMMUNIT 33)		17 Jul 1945	31 Dec 1956
   Transferred to Brazilian Navy 

Santos, Brazil
Navy Direction Finding Station, Santos, Brazil 		   Aug 1943 	   Jun 1945
   Transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard
===================================================================================
Brownsville, Texas

Brownsville is a city in Texas, the county seat of Cameron County, and the southern-
most city in Texas. The population was 139,722 at the 2000 census. Brownsville is 
located on the U.S.-Mexico border, at the Rio Grande or Río Bravo del Norte) opposite 
Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the largest city in the Rio Grande Valley, 
both in population and size. 

Fort Brown (1846-1906, 1913-1946), an American earthen star-shaped fort originally was 
named Fort Texas and then Fort Taylor. In 1845, construction of a fort on the Mexicao 
border was commisioned, due to increased instability in the region. The government 
reservation of the original post was built on a tract of land containing 358 acres, 
situated on the Rio Grande immediately adjacent to Brownsville. Fort Texas was 
established on March 28, 1846, by General Zachary Taylor and was called Fort Taylor 
prior to May 17, 1846. The construction of the fort helped precipitate the onset of the 
Mexican-American War. Before completion, the Mexican Army began at the Siege of Fort 
Texas, during the first active campaign in the Mexican-American War, between May 3-9, 
1846. The first battle of the war occurred on May 8, 1846, when General Zachary Taylor 
received word of the siege of the fort. They rushed to help, but were intercepted, 
resulting in the Battle of Palo Alto about 5 miles north of present day Brownsville. 
On May 9, 1846, the Mexican forces had retreated, and Taylor's troops caught up with 
them, resulting in the Battle of Resaca de la Palma, which was fought within the 
bounds of the present Brownsville city limits. When General Taylor finally arrived at 
the beseiged Fort Taylor, he discovered that two soldiers had died, one of which was 
the fort's commander, Major Jacob Brown. General Taylor renamed the fort as Fort Brown 
on May 17, 1846, in his honor. The post was heavily garrisoned for the remainder of the 
war, and in 1848, became a permanent post. The town of Brownsville grew up adjacent to 
it. 

Brownsville Barracks was built in 1848, adjacent to the fort. During the 1850s, it 
protected the area from hostile Indians and kept a check on border disputes. Colonel 
Robert E. Lee was stationed there for a short time, in the late 1950's. Fort Brown was 
briefly abandoned in 1859, for Fort Duncan. In 1861, the Federal troops evacuated Fort 
Brown and were replaced by Texas State troops. Fort Brown was occupied by the 
Confederates from 1861 to 1863. With the southern Atlantic coast blockaded, Brownsville 
became a major Confederate port, with cotton for Europe passing south into Mexico and 
war material for the Confederacy passing north into Texas. To eliminate this trade, a 
Union army landed at the mouth of the Rio Grande in November 6, 1863, occupying Fort 
Brown and Brownsville. Eight months later, however, the Federal forces were driven out 
by a strong Confederate army on July 30, 1864, which held the fort until 1865, at the 
end of the Civil War. 

Fort Brown was reoccupied by Union forces after the war ended. Two bastions of the 
original fort still remain on the Riverview Municipal Golf Course. A new fort and 
barracks were built in 1867, adjacent to the original site, but were destroyed by a 
hurricane that same year. It was rebuilt again in 1869. The fort was abandoned in 1906, 
after conflicts with the local citizens. Fort Brown was regarrisoned in 1913, during 
border troubles with Mexico. 

A U.S. Naval Wireless (later Radio) Station, was established at Fort Brown, near 
Brownsville, TX and received its first ever transmission from the Naval Radio Station 
at Arlington VA, on October 7, 1914. Desegnated a Naval Radio Station in 1915 (medium
power transmitter), the Navy Radio Station Brownsville, TX at Fort Brown, shifted to a 
low power transmitter on August 24, 1923. These transmitter power shifts likely indicated 
an advancement in powerful transmitters over the period, rather than a physical diminish-
ment of the existing system. The Navy Radio Station transmitter at Fort Brown was still 
active in 1926. Its status after that year, until May, 1944, when Fort Brown was 
deactivated, is unknown.

Fort Brown was also important during both World Wars. During the activation of forces 
for World War II, the 12th U.S. Cavalry was transferred from Fort Brown and replaced by 
the 124th Cavalry of the Texas National Guard, which was the last cavalry unit in the 
nation to give up their horses and also the last regiment housed at Fort Brown. The 
124th left to fight in Burma in the Far East, leaving behind only a few soldiers at Fort 
Brown, until May, 1944, when it was deactivated and abandoned by the U.S. Army. 

Officially decommissioned in 1945, the Fort Brown property and buildings were sold to 
the City of Brownsville, which used the old buildings for city offices. By 1948, what 
was once Fort Brown belonged to either the City of Brownsville or Texas Southmost 
College. The area now houses various functions including the Brownsville General Services 
Administration, a civic center and Texas Southmost College, which occupied the remaining 
old fort buildings. Many of the original 1869 buildings are still in use today by the 
University of Texas, Brownsville.

The city of Brownsville (named after the Fort) was originally established late in 1848, 
and was made the county seat of the new Cameron County on January 13, 1849. The city was 
originally incorporated by the state on January 24, 1850. This was repealed on April 1, 
1852, due to a land ownership dispute. The state reincorporated the city on February 7, 
1853, which remains in effect. 

During the Civil War, Brownsville was used as a smuggling point for Confederate goods 
into Mexico. Fort Brown was controlled by the Confederates. In November 1863, Union 
troops landed at Port Isabel and marched towards Brownsville to stop the smuggling. 
Confederate forces abandoned the fort, blowing it up with 8000 pounds of explosives. 
In 1864, the town was reoccupied by the Confederates. On May 15, 1865, a month after the 
surrender had been signed at Appomattox Court House, the Battle of Palmito Ranch was 
fought and won by the Confederades.

On August 13th and 14th, 1906, Brownsville was the site of the Brownsville Raid. Racial 
tensions were high between white townsfolk and black infantrymen stationed at Fort Brown. 
Two white townspeople were killed in Brownsville. Townsfolk initially blamed the 
infantrymen as the murderers. Without a chance to defend themselves, President Roosevelt 
dishonorably discharged them due to their "conspiracy of silence". Further investigations 
in the 1970's found that they were not at fault, and the Nixon Administration reversed 
all their dishonorable discharges.
 

Navy Direction Finding Station, Brownsville, TX
   at U.S. Naval Radio Station, Brownsville, TX		   Oct 1914	       1926/1944 (?)
===================================================================================
Burrwood, Louisiana

Burrwood, a former village of Plaquemines parish, was located in extreme southeast 
Louisiana, on Southwest Pass, one of the three mouths of the Mississippi River, 
near the southwest extremity of the delta. Burrwood was 80 miles southeast of New
Orleans and was the southernmost town in Louisiana. Burrwood was the headquarters
for channel maintenance. The Southwest Pass lighthouse is on the opposite bank of 
the pass. Many oil wells and natural gas fields are in the vicinity. The community 
of Burrwood no longer exists. The nearest present day community is Port Eads, LA, 
which is 13 miles east northeast of the former location of Burrwood.

Plaquemines Parish is the parish with the most combined land and water area in the 
U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Pointe à la Hache. As of 2000, the 
parish's population was 26,757. The name "Plaquemines" comes from a Native American 
word, piakimin, meaning persimmon. It was first used to name an old military post 
on the banks of the Mississippi, which was surrounded by a large number of persimmon 
trees. Eventually the name was applied to the entire parish.

Because Plaquemines Parish encompasses the first 70 miles of the Mississippi River, 
it plays host to several oil refineries, which make use of the shipping lanes. The 
Mississippi River Delta of Plaquemines also provides assistance to offshore oil rigs. 
Plaquemines Parish was also the first place where a container was first used to ship 
cargo in foreign trade.

The Southwest Pass Entrance Lighthouse was established in 1831. The first lighthouse
tower fell into the Mississippi River during a storm in 1837. In 1838, Congress 
approved a new tower at Southwest Pass. In 1839, the new brick conical lighthouse 
tower was built. In 1849, the lighthouse stood in 10 feet water during a storm surge. 
In 1855, the Lighthouse Board received $45,000 for an iron tower to replace the 
crumbling brick tower. The Board ordered the basic metalwork, but another $70,000 
was needed to complete the tower. In 1861, Congress supplied full funding for the 
lighthouse, but construction was discontinued, due to the Civil War. Union forces 
stole the lens from the old lighthouse. In 1863, a 4th order lens was placed back in 
the old tower. The Lighthouse Board asked Congress for a re-appropriation of the 
necessary funds to finish the lighthouse. Congress approved $108,000.00. Construction 
began on the iron structure in 1870, and was completed in 1873, with a first Fresnel 
order lens installed, which was first lit on July 1, 1873. 

In 1894, a fire gutted the dwelling, melted the iron stairs, destroyed the lantern and 
the whole central cylinder was replaced with a skeletal tower. The skeletal lighthouse 
was deactivated sometime in 1953. In 1962, a concrete and steel replacement lighthouse 
was built above a keeper's dwelling, on pilings. The first order Fresnel lens was re-lit 
in the new tower in 1962. The lighthouse was automated in 1985 and keepers were no 
longer required. The Southwest Pass Entrance Lighthouse is maintained by the U.S. Coast 
Guard, and is still operational as a Coast Guard Active Aid to Navigation.  

In the early 1900s, Plaquemines Parish was an exporter of citrus, and used the train 
and the river to move its large annual harvest. The parish has also been a big 
commercial fisheries haven, especially for oysters. From 1919 to 1969, Plaquemines 
Parish (together with neighbouring St. Bernard Parish), was effectively the domain of 
political boss Leander Perez, who established a virtual dictatorship in the area. 
He was notorious for fixing elections and mandating strict racial segregation.

One of the remaining historical treasures of Plaquemines Parish is Fort Jackson, 
built in 1822 under the recommendation of General Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle 
of New Orleans; it was completed in 1832. In 1861, Fort Jackson served as an 
important defense for the city of New Orleans during the Civil War, because it was 
at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Confederates gained control in 1861, but 
the fort was captured by the Union in 1862. Farragut besieged the fort and, after a 
ten day exchange of artillery, he succeeded in moving his force up river where they 
captured New Orleans. The original fort still stands and is remarkably intact. It 
was restored to some extent in 1898, and during during World War I, it was also used 
as a training base (1917-1918). The post was sold in 1927, and restored in 1962, and 
completely flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with extensive damage. Picture at 
link: <http://users.stlcc.edu/jangert/ft_jack/fort.jpg>.

Fort St. Philip (1761-1765, 1792-1923), lies directly across the Mississippi River 
from Fort Jackson, at Bayou Mardi Gras. A small French work known as Fort St. 
Philippe (1761-1765) was first located here. It was abandoned. The Spanish then 
built Fort San Felipe de Placaminas (1792-1803), which came to the Americans in 
1803, with the Louisiana Purchase. It was also known as Fort Plaquemines and Fort 
at Plaquemines Bend. It was strengthened in 1814 after a British Naval attack, and 
rebuilt in 1841. Controlled by the Confederates from 1861-1862, the fort was captured 
by the Union in 1862, along with Fort Jackson. Abandoned in 1871, but regarrisoned 
after smuggled liquor was found here. In 1872, the gun batteries were reworked and 
joined together with a new section along the front of the fort to form a continuous 
25 gun battery. At least ten guns were mounted by the 1890's. High tide usually 
floods the lower levels of the batteries and magazines. Access is by boat only. 
Fort St. Philip was sold in 1923, and is now private property.

During World War I, a Navy Direction Finding Station was located at the Burrwood
Naval Station, co-located within the U.S. Naval Radio Station, Burrwood, LA. The
Navy Direction Finding Station was disestablished in 1923. 

During the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, city and state leaders used dynamite 
to breech a levee at Caernarvon, thirteen miles below Canal Street, in order to 
save the city of New Orleans from flooding. However, this action resulted in the 
flooding of both St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, causing widespread destruction.

During World War II, a Naval Section Base and Naval Frontier Base was located at 
Burrwood, part of the 8th Naval District, headquartered in New Orleans. Two commands 
were located at Burrwood, the Degaussing Range (Southwest Pass), Burrwood, LA, and 
the Commander Frontier Bases, 8th Naval District, Burrwood, LA.

On September 24, 1956, Hurricane Flossy completely submerged Grand Isle and caused 
extensive coastal erosion as it moved across the Mississippi Delta. Burrwood reported 
winds up to 90 mph. Rain totals reached 16.7 inches at Golden Meadow. Hundreds lost 
their homes in the storm. Cattle were drowned and citrus, sugar cane, and pecan crops 
were heavily damaged. The eastern sections of the New Orleans seawall were overtopped, 
flooding 2.5 square miles. A storm surge of 13 feet was seen at Ostrica Lock. The 
storm killed 15 and caused $22 million in damages.

On September 15th, 1960, Hurricane Ethel quickly developed in the Central Gulf of 
Mexico, before accelerating northward along the extreme southeast sections of the 
Mississippi Delta, before moving inland at Biloxi. Hurricane force winds were seen 
in Lower Plaquemines Parish. Venice had sustained winds of 90 mph with gusts to 104 
mph. Burrwood saw gusts to 69 mph. The highest tide noted was 7 feet above sea level 
on Quarantine Bay. Storm surges inundated the coast from the mouth of the Mississippi 
east to St. Marks, FL.  

One of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history struck Louisiana on August 29, 
2005. Hurricane Katrina struck and did severe damage to all of Southeast Louisiana. 
Martial law was not declared in Plaquemines, contrary to many media reports, as no 
such term exists in Louisiana state law. No place escaped without some damage, while 
most of the rest of Plaquemines, Orleans and neighbouring St. Bernard Parish were 
severely hit; Pointe à la Hache, Port Sulphur, Buras-Triumph, Empire, Boothville-
Venice, Phoenix, and Venice, Louisiana suffered tremendous damage. Amidst heavy 
rains accompanied by hurricane force winds in excess of 120 mph at initial landfall 
(with a Category 3 storm surge), the levees failed and broke, and the storm surge 
that flowed in was more than 20 feet high. Although a good majority of the populace 
did heed mandatory evacuation orders, some did not. At least three residents died.

Navy Direction Finding Station, Burrwood, LA	 	      		      1923
   at U.S. Naval Radio Station, Burrwood, LA
===================================================================================
Cabo Rojo, Mayaguez District, Boquerón, Puerto Rico 

Cabo Rojo (Kah-bo, Ro-ho) located on the Western Costal Valley. Bordering the 
Caribbean Sea; and the Mona Passage, south of Mayagüez and Hormigueros; and east of 
Hormigueros, San Germán and Lajas spread over 18 wards and Cabo Rojo Pueblo, the 
downtown area and the administrative center of the city. Cabo Rojo is known as 
"El Pueblo de Cofresí" (Cofresí's town). Cabo Rojo was founded on December 17, 1771 
by Nicolás Ramírez de Arellano and Miguel de Muesas. It is said that Cabo Rojo 
obtained its name from the considerable amount of minerals found in its coasts that 
made the waters look reddish. Cabo is the Spanish word for tip and analogous to the 
English word Cape in this context. The word rojo, translates to red. According to 
legend, the name was given by Christopher Columbus himself, although this is highly 
unlikely. The first church, founded in 1783, was called San José. The present-day 
main catholic church is called San Miguel Arcángel located in the town's square.
The bay at Boquerón, part of the Municipality of Cabo Rojo, extends some 3 1/2 miles 
inland, sheltering over a mile of white sand bordered by clear water. 

People from Combate are known as mata con hacha ("those who kill with axes") based 
on an old folk tale about a fight over the Salinas where those from Cabo Rojo fought 
with axes against people from the adjacent town of Lajas. The latter apparently 
fought back by throwing stones and are thus known as tira piedras ("those who throw 
stones").

The famous Cabo Rojo lighthouse, Los Morrillos Lighthouse, known by locals as El 
Faro, was built in 1881 over limestone cliffs that drop 200 feet into the sea. This 
old lighthouse was automated and electrically charged in 1967 and is considered 
to have some, if not the, most spectacular ocean views in Puerto Rico's West Coast. 
The lighthouse has undergone recent renovations, of which has created controversy 
because of the quality of work. As most locals and scholars believe, the internal 
structure was gutted leaving nothing of historical significance behind. Limestone 
cliffs near the Los Morrillos Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located near the Salinas, 
or salt mines. These salt mines are reported to be the oldest industry in the New 
World. Salt has been mined in this site non-stop since the times of the Taínos.

Although Cabo Rojo lacks an airport, it is approximately 11 miles from the Eugenio 
Maria de Hostos Airport, a commercial airport that serves direct flights to and 
from San Juan. Cabo Rojo has grown tremendously in the last few years as evidenced 
by its recent accreditation as a city. Cabo Rojo nearest airport servicing 
international destinations is only 45 min away in the city of Aguadilla. Rafael 
Hernandes Airport. This airport was part of the now deactivated Ramey Air Force Base.

Communications Support Activity (DF), San Juan, 	       1938	   Jan 1952
   Carolina, PR
   Radio Intercept Station established at San Geronimo	   Jan 1940
   Direction Finding (DF) moved to Cabo Rojo		   Feb 1942
   Radio Intercept (RI) moved to NSG Det, Sabana Seca, PR  Jan 1952
Navy Direction Finding Station, Cabo Rojo, PR		   Feb 1942 	   Jan 1943 
   Moved to Trinidad
Navy Direction Finding Station, Trinidad 		   Jan 1943 	   Jul 1945  
   Transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard 
Navy Direction Finding Station, Trinidad (reopened)	       1952        ??? ????
   Naval Communications Unit (NAVCOMMUNIT 41)		       1952 	   ??? ????
===================================================================================
Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Cape Elizabeth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine. The population was 9,068 at 
the 2000 census. A residential and resort area situated on the southern shore of 
Casco Bay, just south of Portland, Cape Elizabeth is home to Crescent Beach State 
Park and Two Lights State Park. 

Cape Elizabeth History
At the southern tip of the promontory, Richmond's Island was visited about 1605 by 
Samuel de Champlain. John Smith explored and mapped New England in 1615, and gave 
names to places mainly based on the names used by Native Americans. When Smith 
presented his map to King Charles I, he suggested that the king should feel free 
to change any of the "barbarous names" for English ones. The king made many such 
changes, but only four survive today, one of which is Cape Elizabeth, which Charles 
named in honor of his sister, Elizabeth of Bohemia.

The first habitation by Europeans was on Richmond's Island. Without title, Walter 
Bagnall (called "Great Walt") in 1628 established a trading post, dealing in rum 
and beaver skins, trading with the Indians, "without scruple about his methods." 
His cheating caught up with him in October of 1631, when he was killed by the 
Indians, who also burned down his trading post. Two months later, the Plymouth 
Company granted Richmond's Island to Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear, 
merchants of Plymouth, England, who made it a center for fisheries and trade. By 
1638, Trelawney employed 60 men in the fisheries. The first settlers on the 
mainland were George Cleeve and Richard Tucker, who settled in 1630 on the shore 
opposite the island, and near the